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KOSSUTH: 




HIS LIFE AND SPEECHES, 



NEW YORK : 

STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY. 

1851, 



r^J 



y NEW EDITION OF THE SELECT VI/ORKS 

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SELECT WORKS 



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The Prose Homer of Human Nature. — Lord Byron. 

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immortality. — Quarterly Review. 

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/ 

SKETCH OF THE LIFE 



LOUIS KOSSUTH, 



GOVERNOR OF HUNGARY. 



TOGETHER WITH 



THE DECLARATION OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE; KOSSUTH'S 

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES; 

ALL HIS GREAT SPEECHES IN ENGLAND; 



V 



THE LETTER OF DANIEL WEBSTER TO CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 



]NEW YOEK 




STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY, 

CORNER OF ATTN STREET. 

1851. 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF LOUIS KOSSUTH. 



MAJiJUSCKIPT NEWSPAPER — IMPEISONMENT — ELECTION FOR PESTH. 

Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, only son of Andreas Kossuth, by his wife 
Caroline Weber, was born on the 27th of April, 1802, at Monok, in the county of 
Zemplin. At an early age he was sent to the Calvinist College of Patak, and there 
educated. In 1819 he commenced the ordinary course of study for the law, and at- 
tended the district court of Eperies and the Royal court at Pesth. Having completed 
his studies, he returned to Monok in 1822, and was appointed honorary attorney to the 
county. He was fond of field sports, and at this period gave far more of his time to 
them than to law ; but even thus early he took some part in politics in opposition 
to the efforts of Austria to imperialize Hungary. 

In 1831, the cholera broke out in Hungary : the disease was new — its ravages ter- 
rible — the idea seized upon the Slovack peasants that the upper classes had poisoned 
the water, and they rose and murdered the clergy, Jews and landlords ; all were ter- 
ror-stricken. Then first Kossuth became publicly known. Wherever the pestilence 
was most fierce, or the fear greatest, he came, urged measures of relief, addressed the 
people, and by his plain and earnest eloquence dispelled their delusion, and calmed the 
excitement. Thus distinguished, he was named by several peeresses to attend the Diet 
of 1832 as their proxy, which gave the right to speak but not to vote. He spoke but 
once in the Diet ; and his attention was given to a far more important object than mak- 
ing speeches. Except to those who heard them, either as members or in the galleries, 
the doings of the Diet were known only by a miserable parliamentary committee re- 
port, onesided and lifeless. Kossuth laboriously wrote reports, and sent them in man- 
uscript to a number of subscribers. The interest excited by his able summary of 
important documents and speeches so increased that in 1834, his subscribers amounted 
to 80. To diminish the cost and extend the circulation and usefulness of the paper, he 
set up a lithographic press. Against this move the Austrian Government took mea- 
sures. The great question then before the Diet was the abolition of serfdom ; against 
this a diversion was the thing of all others desired by Austria ; a discussion on the 
liberty of the press would have entirely absorbed attention, and Kossuth, therefore, 
followed the advice of the friends with whom he acted, gave up the press, and resumed 
the manuscript. The primitive little newspaper was read at the club of every one of 



4 KOSSUTH, 

the fifty-two Hungarian counties, and served to awaken an interest in practical niea- 
sures, and to expose the systematic aggression of Austria. 

The sittings of the Diet ended in 1836. It had shown too much the spirit of reform 
to please the Court at Vienna ; and to stay the progress of its measures, the old hack- 
neyed story of a conspiracy was trumped up, and several young men of note were 
arrested : their trials were pretty much of the same order as those of late (so well ex- 
posed by Mr. Gladstone) at Naples ; Kossuth urged the unconstitutionalism of the 
proceedings, but in vain ; the influence of the men was dangerous to Austrian encroach- 
ment, and they were found guilty and imprisoned. 

Kossuth diligently continued his paper. The county meetings — the same as the old 
English shiremotes — were then of great importance ; they discussed every project of 
reform, and resolved upon the course the representatives of the counties should adopt in 
the Diet ; they were, in short, local Parliaments in preparation for the Diet or great 
Parliament. Hitherto, however, the several counties had been isolated. The news- 
letter reported the proceedings, and the counties understood each other and became 
united. The paper, thus, though then but in manuscript, became a new power — the 
people felt it, the Imperial Court took fright, and in 1837 Kossuth was thrown into 
gaol, was kept for a year without a trial, and then sentenced to four years' imprison- 
ment. For the success of such tyranny there had, however, been too much written, 
too much spoken in the counties : the excitement became great. The Diet again met 
in 1839, and opened its proceedings by declaring the prosecution of Kossuth illegal. 
The supplies were refused, and only granted in May, 1840, on condition of the imme- 
diate liberation of Kossuth and a complete amnesty for all political offenders. The 
supplies were granted on the 1.5th of May, and next day the prisoners were liberated. 

Three years had passed over Kossuth in solitary confinement, without books, with- 
out writing materials, when on that day he came forth from prison, pale, worn, broken 
in all but hope for Hungary, an immense concourse of people assembled to welcome 
his liberation. He was escorted through the town that night by a procession with 
some thousand torch-bearers — the mode in Hungary of giving a triumph with the 
highest honor. 

Kossuth returned with renewed energy to the press ; the Ministry and a majority of 
the Diet were Liberal, and on New Year's Day, 1841, with Kossuth for editor, appeared 
the first number of the Pesti Hirlap (Pesth Journal). At first it was published four 
times a week, but soon became a daily paper. Its circulation rose rapidly to 5, 6,' 8, 
and 10 thousand ; and at one period reached even to 12,000. Its influence was im- 
mense. Opinion throughout Hungary was fast gathering to the full strength of union. 
But Austria was not idle ; and, in 1844, succeeded in changing the Ministry. 

The Liberals of 1838 were displaced by Imperialists, and the editorship of the Hirlap 
was taken from Kossuth. He had become convinced that to make the progress of 
Reform safe it must be begun by reform of the counties, and must enlist the 
people. He therefore devoted himself to the emancipation of the serfs, and the 
enfranchisement of the trade of Hungary from the prohibition to import only Austrian 
manufactures, and export no manufactured goods of Hungary to Austria, and for this 



HIS LIFE. O 

purpose formed the bedetgyle, an association pledged to consume no Austrian goods 
until the tariff was reformed. 

The effect was felt. Austrian manufacturers, to preserve their trade, had to trans- 
plant their factories to Hungary. To repress this new-born spirit the Court at Vienna 
fell upon the device of appointing paid Imperial commissioners at the head of the 
counties, instead of the Lord-Lieutenants, who were the old constitutional heads. 
This the more stirred agitation. The reform leaders from every quarter of the king- 
dom met at Pesth, and during the quarterly fairs of 1846 and 1847, to which the people 
from all parts came, the needful measures of reform were publicly discussed one by 
one, and in every detail determined. At the head of this movement, as chairman of 
the meetings, was the late Count Louis Batthyani. Kossuth made able speeches, and 
rose in popularity ; he was not merely eloquent, but practical. Batthyani felt his im- 
portance, and exerted himself to the utmost to secure his election to the Diet for the 
county of Pesth. The Diet met in November, 1847. Previously, the project of re- 
form of the Liberals had been published, and, immediately the Diet met, the law 
abolishing the feudal service of the tenants and the immunity of the nobles from tax- 
ation passed the Lower House. 



THE HUNGAKIAlSr CONSTITUTION. — AUSTRIAN INTRIGUE. TEEASON OF 

JELLACHICH. — SERVIAN AND CROATIAN WAR. 

Kossuth, as representative of the county of Pesth, became, by his eloquence, the 
most popular man of the Diet, and, in the commencement of 1848, made his great 
speech on the liberties of Hungary. He argued that as the Government was consti- 
tuted, progress was impossible. Hungary was ruled by a monarch who served two 
parts of his dominions in different capacities : at Vienna he was Emperor, and abso- 
lute ; at Presburg a King, and limited by the constitution. The result must be con- 
stant encroachment and distrust. It was not possible to be at the same time an Im- 
perial tyrant and the ruler of a free people. Formerly every state of the Austrian 
dominions had a constitution. The 300 years' rule of the house of Hapsburg and the 
thirty years' war had wrested them from all but Hungary, and now either the consti- 
tutions must be restored to all, or Hungary must follow them into slavery. The sole 
safeguard, therefore, of Hungarian liberty was in the restoration of their ancient rights 
and liberties to every state of the Austrian empire. 

In the Diet the speech was heard with profound wonder and respect ; out of doors 
its idea of security to Hungary by the enfranchisement of the whole Austrian people 
was caught up with enthusiasm. The popularity of Kossuth increased. It was felt 
that the proposal originating in the Diet could be truly put as that of the whole Hun- 
garian people. Never was eloquence followed more quickly by practical results. It 
was determined that a project for the restoration of the constitutions should be pre- 
pared and carried by deputation to the Emperor. The report of the speech and account 
of the proceedings reached Vienna on the same day with the news of the revolution at 
Paris and the flight of Louis Philippe. Forthwith the people were in commotion, 



6 KOSSUTH. 

and the storm of excitement rose, until, on the 18th of March, it burst into revolution : 
the soldiers refused to fire on the populace, the Court was terror-stricken, Metlernich 
fled, and the Hungarian deputation, with Kossuth at its head, arrived at Vienna. 

The Emperor at once received them, was complacence itself, accepted the project 
of the constitution, and at the same time entreated Kossuth to restore the peace of 
Vienna, " which he alone could do, and, doing which, he would prove himself the best 
friend of the Hapsburg dynasty." Kossuth consented, and, with the theme of re- 
raising to its former glory the Austrian empire by the restoration of the ancient rights 
of self-government, he gave direction to the disturbed ferment of ideas amongst the 
people, fixed their thoughts upon law and order, restored faith in the Emperor, and 
made peace. 

Just a month after these events, the Emperor, accompanied by his whole family, 
came in state to Presburg, to swear to the constitution, give his sanction to the re- 
formed laws, and afRrm the Cabinet of Count Batthyani. In this Ministry Kossuth 
was, on the ] 1th of April, appointed Minister of Finance, and Francis Pulszki, Under 
Secretary of State in the same department. The Diet had resolved, that in future the 
nobility or freeholders, in common with the rest of the people, should pay taxes, from 
wliich they had hitherto been exempt, and these appointments were made, avowedly, 
because no less popular men could dare to carry the measure, but at bottom with the 
secret hope that Austria could stir up such opposition to this equality of taxation that 
the popularity would be lost in the attempt, and the men become so hated that in all 
probability the bullet of some assassin or the waters of the Danube might close their 
career. 

Whilst the Hungarian Ministry were trustfully engaged in laborious preparation of 
the needful measures of reform to be brought before the Diet, the Court of Vienna was 
deep buried in intrigues — their prime mover the Archduchess Sophia, sister of the 
Queens of Prussia, Saxony, and the King of Bavaria, and mother of the present Em- 
peror, a woman of boundless ambition, and who, from her ability and resolution, has 
earned the name of being the only man in the family of Hapsburg. Her object was 
not only the maintenance of Imperialism as it stood, but its extension over the whole 
of Hungary — her means, the awakening of the race hatred between the Croats, Ser- 
vians, and Vfallachians, her man for the work, Jellachich. Her scheme being un- 
folded to him, he at first refused to enter upon it, for the simple reason that it would 
be unconstitutional, or, in plainer words, an Imperial treason. The Archduchess burst 
into tears, caught him in her arms, declared that without him they were all lost. He 
gave way, and became a traitor. But two or three days were over since the Emperor 
had sworn to the constitution at Presburg, when Jellachich was sent for, to be named 
Ban of Croatia, and go forth to create, as the last prop of Imperialism, civil war 
amongst a people then one in their enthusiasm for reform of the constitution and the 
laws. Jellachich was not long in entering upon his treason and iniquity. On the 
14th of May, the Servians declared war against the Hungarians, and rose, and without 
quarter, put to death all the Hungarians they could find. Troops were sent against 
them, but, notwithstanding the most positive instructions of the Hungarian Minister of 
War, they continually acted, under secret instructions from the Court at- Vienna, 



HIS LIFE. 7 

solely on the defensive, and so gave the Servians opportunity to gather strength. 
The Croats at the same time refused to acknowledge the Hungarian Ministry or the 
law^s of the Diet, although their ow^n representatives had helped to pass them. The 
open instructions sent to Jellachich, although several were autograph letters of the 
Emperor himself, to obey the Hungarian Ministry, were perseveringly disregarded ; he 
began to assemble an army on the frontier, and was declared, on the 10th of June, a 
traitor by the Emperor. Still the Hungarian Diet, unwilling to declare war against 
the Croats, proposed that the Archduke John should be appointed mediator. His mis- 
sion failed. Jellachich, in his own paper, boasted that he had authority for all his 
acts, and that in everything contrary to them the Emperor acted by compulsion. 



EFFORTS FOE PEACE. DEATH OF LAMBEKG. — KOSSUTH PKEACHES THE 

WAE. THE BATTLE OF PAKOED. 

On the 1st of September the Croatian army crossed the frontier. Still the Diet of 
Hungary were resolved, if it were possible, to avert war, and a deputation, consisting 
of several members of the Ministry, the House of Peers and Commons— in all, sixty 
persons — was sent to Vienna, and had an audience, for the purpose of explanation, on 
the 9th of September, with the Emperor, at the Palace at Schonbrunn. His answer 
was evasive ; and whilst the deputies were still hearing him, there was found in the 
ante-room the official paper declaring that the Emperor approved of every act of Jel- 
lachich. The deputation departed in silence ; every man placed the red war feather 
in his hat, and they returned to Presburg. 

There was little room left for doubt as to the future : but they resolved as one fur- 
ther effort for peace to send a deputation to the Austrian Diet at Vienna. It arrived 
on the 10th of September, was refused admittance, and the Hungarian Ministry re- 
signed. On the 13th the Minister of the Interior occupied alone the ministerial place 
in the Hungarian Diet. The Diet called upon Kossuth for the time to resume his po- 
sition : he obeyed, and, taking again his official seat, was welcomed with enthusiasm. 
The Diet authorized him to carry into effect his financial plan, and to create a Govern- 
ment debt by the issue of paper money. Volunteers flocked in for the defense of th« 
town and Diet ; but still another attempt was made to avert the war. 

Both by law and autograph letters of the Emperor, the Archduke Stephen stood at 
the head of the Government ; and the party, still clinging to the hope of peace, urged 
him to direct the formation of a new Cabinet, which was undertaken by Louis Bat- 
thyani. 

Jellachich, to avert hostilities, was slowly advancing upon Pesth. He issued orders 
to all the Hungarian cavalry regiments to join his army, and to offer no opposition to 
the Croats. With the exception of a single regiment of cuirassiers, the Hungarian offi- 
cers refused obedience to the general, and followed the instructions of the Ministry. 
They sent, however, a deputation of officers to Jellachich, with the request that they 
might be shown the Imperial order for the invasion of Hungary. Jellachich admitted 



8 KOSSUTH. 

that he had no such order ; but declared that he was acting under a direct understanding 
with the Emperor. 

Batthyani at once demanded that the Archduke, who, as Palatine, was constitution- 
ally captain general of the kingdom, should take command of the Hungarian army. 
The Duke obeyed, and, as a last effort for peace, sought an interview with Jellachich, 
' on a steamer on the Lake Balaton. On one side were gathered the Hungarian, on the 
other the Croatian, forces. It was arranged that each general should come with three 
attendants. Jellachich did not appear, offering as his reason that the Archduke had 
raised the Hungarian, and not the Austrian, colors, which were those of his family. 
Finding thus no chance of peace, the Duke on the 24th set off for Vienna. 

On the 26th Count Lamberg came with the appointment of Commander-in-Chief of 
both Hungarian and Croatian armies, and to dissolve the Diet, and take possession of the 
fortress of Bude. The appointment and order were not countersigned by any Minister, 
and were, therefore, illegal and not acknowledged : the Diet declared him a traitor, and 
he was warned by Francis Pulszki not to show himself at Pesth. He, however, came, 
and on the 9th, crossing the bridge of boats, on his way to summon the fortress of Bude, 
was recognized by the people and killed. 

When the Arckduke fled, the leading men of the Ministry were thrown into dismay : 
Count Sczhenyi went mad. Thus every effort to preserve peace had failed, and the 
Hungarian Government were compelled to war for the constitution (to which the Em- 
peror had sworn) against a general whom the Emperor himself had declared a traitor, 
and who had stirred up civil war in obedience to instructions from the Imperial Court, 
which at the time he himself declared them treason, yet vowed he would follow 
though they should lead him to the scaffold. Kossuth issued a proclamation to the 
Hungarian people, with faith, that if resolved they had sufficient strength to overthrow 
the Croatian army, and calling upon all to arm. 

With the imminence of the fate of Hungarian liberty the spirit of Kossuth rose ; the 
perils of the moment waked at once his strength and eloquence, and reliance upon the 
people. He went down to the plain of Hungary, and there preached the war for the 
constitution, and against the Imperial treason, as a holy war. Never before had such 
speech been heard. The enthusiasm spread ; the people flocked by thousands to the 
standard ; volunteers set out even from Vienna, and were not prevented ; the entire people 
of Pesth swarmed to Vetzprem ; mere lads came, and old men of 60 came — came with 
knives, scythes, hatchets ; for ten days they gathered to the battle-field ; no one knew 
the number — they were undrilled, unofRcered, untaught in war ; a force so ill equipped 
scarce ever stood in face of an enemy ; but they were earnest ; fearless ; and, inspired 
by the eloquence of Kossuth, were impatient for battle. 

There was no time to mend their condition ; the Croats, 40,000 strong, and in every 
thing well appointed, were in view. The Hungarians had some cannon, manned by 
lawyers and engineers of Pesth who had practiced under the Bohemian artillerymen ; 
but to this part of the force the victory was not to belong. The news that Batthyani 
had left the country, and that General Lamberg had been murdered, was soon known 
in both armies. Lamberg had been a favorite with the Hungarian soldiers, Batthyani 
with the people ; and, relying on the depressing effect of the news on the disciplined 



HIS LIFE. y 

portion of the forces, Jellachich, on the morning of the 29th, gave orders for an attack. 
A cannonade, with little effect, lasted for some hours. Charge on charge Jellachich's 
cuirassiers came upon the Hungarian infantry, and were repulsed. The battle had 
lasted until evening, when there was a rush forward of the Hungarians ; the rough, 
self-devoted multitude tried its strength against the disciplined force. The Croats 
broke and iled in confusion. Jellachich sent a flag of truce, asking a three days' arm- 
istice — it was granted ; and the same night he broke up his camp and fled. Of his 
force, 50&0 were beaten on the 3d by the National Guards of the south-western coun- 
ties ; and on the 5th the raw levies which Kossuth had gathered overtook and cap- 
tured 12,000 men, with twelve pieces of cannon and two general officers. Such was 
4he battle of Pakord, and so ended Jellachich's dream of an unfought-for victory to 
treason. 

EEVOLTTTION AND SIEGE OF VIENNA — KOSSUTH PROCLAIMED GOVEENOK 

OF HUNGARY. 

The news of the defeat of Jellachich reached Vienna about the 3d of October. On 
the 4th he was appointed civil and military governor of Hungary, the Hungarian Diet 
to be dissolved, and a portion of the garrison of Vienna was ordered to march to Pesth 
It refused. On the 8th there was a battle in the streets : the people and refusing force 
were victorious ; the Minister of War was hanged by the people ; and on the night 
of the 7th the Emperor left Vienna, and the war became a war between Hungary and 
Austria. The Hungarians offered their help to Vienna, but Kossuth refused to march 
unless invited by the proper authorities, who had not the courage to give the invitation. 
Vienna was besieged and taken by the Austrians ; the Hungarian army retreated; and 
the Austrians advanced into Hungary. On the 15th of November there was so intense 
a frost that the Danube and all the streams and swamps were frozen. Kossuth named 
Gorgey commander-in-chief of the army: he offered but small resistance to the inva- 
ders, and they came to the gates of Pesth on the 5th of January, 1849. Kossuth then 
advised to retire into the center of Hungary and organize the army ; others advised an 
effort to make terms with Austria ; in accordance with this advice Count Louis Bat- 
thyani was sent with a flag of truce, he was seized, imprisoned, and seven months 
afterwards shot. Meanwhile Kossuth had gone to Debreczin, and there again his 
eloquence won volunteers by thousands, so that it was said " that wherever he stamped, 
his foot there sprung up a soldier." But not only had he to find men, there were no. 
arms ; he established foundries and forges. There was no powder, no sulphur in the 
kingdom : he had it made from the black jack of the copper mines, and so set powder- 
mills to work. Battalion after battalion was drilled, and in these preparations the 
time was spent until the middle of March. Meanwhile several battles were fought, 
some of which were defeats, some doubtful for the Hungarians, and Transylvania fell 
entirely into the hands of the Austrians. Kossuth appointed Klapka to the command 
of the northern army, Bern to that of Transylvania. 

On the 24th of March the Hungarian army began to act upon the offensive. For 
the first and most important part of the campaign Kossuth was with the main army . 



10 KOSSUTH. 

In the April he returned to Debreczin, and on the 14th proposed in the Protestant 
Church the deposition from the throne of Hungary of the house of Hapsburg. The 
proposition was carried, both by the Commons and Peers, the independence of Hun- 
gary proclaimed, and Kossuth appointed Governor. In ten great battles the Austrians 
were defeated and driven to the very frontiers of Hungary. 

The formal declaration of Hungarian independence, though not issued till a later 
stage of the struggle, gives so complete an account of Kossuth's viev/ of the great 
question at issue, that its introduction here will be the best mode of placing the 
reader in possession of the whole case : — 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 

"We, the legally constituted representatives of the Hungarian nation assembled in 
Diet, do by these presents solemnly proclaim, in maintenance of the inalienable natural 
rights of Hungary, with all its appurtenances and dependencies, to occupy the position 
of an independent European state ; that the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg, as perjured 
in the sight of God and man, has forfeited its right to the Hungarian throne. At the 
same time, we feel ourselves bound in duty to make known the motives and reasons 
which have impelled us to this decision, that the civilized world may learn we have 
taken this step, not out of overweening coniidence in our own wisdom, nor out of revo- 
lutionary excitement, but that it is an act of the last necessity, adopted to pre- 
serve from utter destruction a nation persecuted to the limit of the most enduring pa- 
tience. 

Three hundred years have passed since the Hungarian nation, by free election, placed 
the house of Austria upon its throne, in accordance with stipulations made on both 
sides, and ratified by treaty. These three hundred years have been, for the country, a 
period of uninterrupted suffering. 

The Creator has blessed this country with all the elements of wealth and happiness. 
Its area of 110,000 square miles presents in varied profusion innumerable sources of 
prosperity. Its population, numbering nearly 15,000,000, feels the glow c^f youthful 
strength within its veins, and has shown temper and docility which warrant its proving 
at once the main organ of civilization in Eastern Europe, and the guardian of that 
civilization when attacked. Never was a more grateful task appointed to a reigning 
dynasty by the dispensation of Providence than that which devolved upon the house 
of Lorraine-Hapsburg. To have done nothing to impede the development of the 
country would have sufficed. Had this been the rule observed, Hungary would now 
rank amongst the most prosperous nations. It was only necessary that it should not 
envy the Hungarians the moderate share of constitutional liberty which they timidly- 
maintained during the difficulties of a thousand years with rare fidelity to their 
sovereigns, so that the house of Hapsburg might long have counted this nation amongst 
the most faithful adherents of the throne. 

This dynasty, however, which can at no epoch point to a ruler who based his power 
on the freedom of the people, adopted a course toward this nation, from father to son, 
which deserves the appellation of perjury. 

The house of Austria has publicly used every effort to deprive the country of its 
legitimate independence and constitution, designing to reduce it to a level with the other 
provinces long since deprived of all freedom, and to unite all in a common sink of sla- 
very. Foiled in this effort by the untiring vigilance of the nation, it directed its en- 
deavor to lame the power, to check the progress of Hungary, causing it to minister to 
the gain of the provinces of Austria, but only to the extent which enabled those 
provinces to bear the load of taxation with which the prodigality of the imperial 
house weighed them down ; having first deprived those provinces of all constitutional 
means of remonstrating against a policy which was not based upon the welfare of the 
subject, but solely tended to maintain despotism and crush liberty in every country of 
Europe. 

It has frequently happened that the Hungarian nation, in despite of this systematized 
tyranny, has been obliged to take up arms in self-defense. Although constantly vie- 



DECLARATION OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE. 11 

tEorious in these constitutional struggles, yet so moderate has the nation ever heen in its 

use of the victory, so strongly has it confided in the king's plighted w^ord, that it has , 

ever laid dovi^n arms as soon as the king, by new compacts and fresh oaths, has guaran- I 

teed the duration of its rights and liberty. But every new compact was futile as 

those which preceded it ; each oath which fell from the royal lips was but a renewal 

of previous perjuries. The policy of the house of Austria, which aimed at destroying 

the independence of Hungary as a state, has been pursued unaltered for three hundred 

years. 

It was in vain that the Hungarian nation shed its blood for the deliverance of Aus- 
tria whenever it was in danger ; vain were all the sacrifices which it made to serve 
the interests of the reigning hoftse ; in vain did it, on the renewal of the royal pro- ' ^j,- 

raises, forget the wounds which the past had inflicted ; vain was the fidelity cherished "^^ 

by the Hungarians for their king, and which, in moments of danger, assumed a cha- 
racter of devotion. They were in vain, because the history of the government of that 
dynasty in Hungary presents but an unbroken series of perjured deeds from generation * 

to generation. 

In spite of such treatment, the Hungarian nation has all along respected the tie by f 

which it was united to this dynasty ; and in now decreeing its expulsion from the } 

throne, it acts under the natural law of self-preservation, being driven to pronounce g 

this sentence by the full conviction that the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg is compassing ft 

the destruction of Hungary as an independent state ; so that this dynasty has been the I 

first to tear the bands by which it v/as united to the Hungarian nation, and to confess | 

that it had torn them in the face of Europe. For many causes a nation is justified, | 

before God and man, in expelling a reigning dynasty. Among such are the follow- |^ 

ing:— _ _ Sl 

When it forms alliances with the enemies of the country, with robbers, or partisan 
chieftains, to oppress the nation. When it attempts to annihilate the independence of 
the country and its constitution, supplied by oaths, attacking with an armed force 
the people who have committed no act of revolt. When the integrity of a country 
which the sovereign has sworn to maintain is violated, and its power diminished. 
When foreign armies are employed to murder the people, and to oppress their liber- 
ties. 

Each of the grounds here enumerated would justify the exclusion of a dynasty from 
the throne. But the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg is unexampled in the compass of its 
perjuries, and has committed every one of these crimes again'st the nation ; and its 
determination to extinguish the independence of Hungary has been accompanied with 
a succession of criminal acts, comprising robbery, destruction of property by fire, mur- 
der, maiming, and personal ill-treatment of all kinds, besides setting the laws of the 
country at defiance, so that humanity will shudder when reading this disgraceful page 
of history. 

The main impulse to this recent unjustifiable course was the passing of the laws 
adopted in the spring of 1848 for the better protection of the constitution of the coun- 
try. These laws provided reforms in the internal government of the country, by 
which the commutation of servile services and of the tithe were decreed ; a fair repre- 
sentation guaranteed to the people in the Diet, whose constitution was before that ex- 
clusively aristocratical ; equality before the law proclaimed; the privilege of exemp- 
tion from taxation abolished ; freedom of the press pronounced ,- and, to stem the 
torrent of abuses, trial by jury established, with other improvements. Notwithstand- 
ing that, as a consequence of the French February revolution, troubles broke out in 
every province of the Austrian empire, and the reigning dynasty was left without 
support ; the Hungarian nation was too generous at such a moment to demand more 
privileges, and contented itself with enforcing the administration of its old rights, 
upon a system of ministerial responsibility, and with maintaining them and the inde- 
pendence of the country against the often-renewed and perjured attempts of the crown. 
These rights and the independence sought to be maintained, were, however, no new 
acquisition, but were what the king, by his oath, and according to law, was bound to 
keep up, and which had not in the slightest degree been affected by the relation in 
which Hungary stood to the provinces of the empire. 

In point of fact, Hungary and Transylvania, with all their possessions and depen- 
dencies, never were incorporated into the Austrian empire, but formed a separate in- 
dependent kingdom, even after the adoption of the Pragmatic Sanction, by which the 



12 KOSSUTH. 

r 
same law of succession was adopted for Hungary which obtained in the other coun- 
tries and provinces. 

The clearest proof of this legal fact is furnished by the law incorporated into the 
act of the Pragmatic Sanction, and which stipulates that the territory of Hungary and 
its dependencies, as well as its independence, self-dependence, constitution and privi- 
leges, shall remain inviolate and specially guaranteed. 

Another proof is contained in the stipulation of the Pragmatic Sanction, according 
to which, the heir of the crown only becomes legally king of Hungary upon the con- 
clusion of a coronation treaty with the nation, and upon his swearing to maintain the 
constitution and the laws of the country, whereupon he is to be crowned with the 
crown of St. Stephen. The act signed at the coronatien contains the stipulation, that 
all laws, privileges, and the entire constitution, shall be observed, together with the 
order of succession. But one sovereign since the adoption of the Pragmatic Sanction 
refused to enter into the coronation compact, and swear to the constitution. This was 
Joseph II., who died without being crowned ; but for that reason his name is not re- 
corded amongst the kings of Hungary, and all his acts are considered illegal, null and 
void. His successor, Leopold II., was obliged, before ascending the Hungarian throne, 
to enter into the coronation compact, to take the oath and to let himself be crowned. 
On this occasion, it was distinctly declared in Art. 10, 1790, sanctioned upon oath by 
the king, that Hungary was a free and independent country with regard to its govern- 
ment, and not subordinate to any other state or people whatever j consequently, that 
it was to be governed by its own customs and laws. 

The same oath was taken by Francis I., who came to the throne in the same year, 
1790. On the extinction of the imperial dignity in Germany, and the foundation of 
the Austrian empire, this emperor, who allowed himself to violate the law in innumer- 
able instances, had still sufficient respect for his oath publicly to avow that Hungary 
formed no portion of the Austrian empire. For this reason Hungary was separated 
from the rest of the Austrian states by a chain of customs guards along the whole 
frontier, which still continues. 

The same oath was taken, on his accession to the throne, by Ferdinand V., who, at 
the diet held at Presburgh, last year, of his own free will sanctioned the laws that 
were passed, but who, soon after, breaking that oath, entered into a conspiracy with 
the other members of his family, with the intent of erasing Hungary from the list of 
independent nations. 

Still the Hungarian nation preserved with useless piety its loyalty to its perjured 
sovereign, and during March last year, while the empire was on the brink of destruc- 
tion — while its armies in Italy suffered one defeat after another, and he, in his im- 
perial palace, had to fear at any moment that he might be driven from it — Hungary 
did not take advantage of so favorable a moment to make increased demands : it 
asked only that its constitution might be guaranteed, and abuses rectified — a constitu- 
tion to maintain which fourteen kings of the Austrian dynasty had sworn a solemn 
oath, which every one of them had broken. 

When the king undertook to guarantee those ancient rights, and gave his sanction 
to the establishment of a responsible ministry, the Hungarian nation flew enthusiasti- 
cally to his support, and rallied its might around his tottering throne. At that event- 
ful crisis, as at so many others, the house of Austria was saved by the fidelity of the 
Hungarians. 

Scarcely, however, had his oath fallen from his lips when he conspired anew with 
his family, the accomplices of his crime, to compass the destruction of the Hungarian 
nation. This conspiracy did not take place on the ground that any new privileges 
were conceded by the recent laws which diminished the royal authority. From what 
has been said, it is clear that no such demands were made. The conspiracy was 
founded to get rid of the responsible ministry, which made it impossible for the 
Vienna cabinet to treat the Hungarian constitution any longer as a nullity. 

In former times a governing council, under the name of the Royal Hungarian Stadt- 
holdership, the president of which was the Palatine, held its seat at Buda, whose sa- 
cred duty it was to watch over the integrity of the state, the inviolability of the con- 
stitution, and the sanctity of the laws ; but this collegiate authority not presenting any 
element of personal responsibility, the Vienna cabinet gradually degraded this council 
to the position of an administrative organ of court absolutism. In this manner, while 
Hungary had ostensibly an independent government, the despotic Vienna cabinet dis- 



DECLARATION OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE. 



13 



posed at will of the money and blood of the people for foreign purposes, postponing its 
trading interests to the success of courtly cabals, injurious to the welfare of the people, 
so that we were excluded from all connection with the other countries of the world, 
and were degraded to the position of a colony. The mode of governing by a ministry 
was intended to put a stop to these proceedings, which caused the rights of the coun- 
try to moulder uselessly in its parchments ; by the change, these rights and the royal 
oath were both to become a reality. It was the apprehension of this, and especially 
the fear of losing its control over the money and blood of the country, which caused 
the house of Austria to resolve the involving of Hungary, by the foulest intrigues, in 
the horrors of fire and slaughter, that having plunged the country in a civil war, it 
might seize the opportunity to dismember the lands, and to blot out the name of Hun- 
gary from the list of independent nations, and unite its plundered and bleeding limbs 
with the Austrian monarchy. ■ 

The beginning of this course was by issuing orders, during the existence of the min- 
istry, directing an Austrian general to rise in rebellion against the laws of the country, 
and by nominating the same general Ban of Croatia — a kingdom belonging to the king- 
dom of Hungary. Croatia and Slavonia were chosen as the seat of military operations 
in this rebellion, because the military organization of those countries promised to pre- 
sent the greatest number of disposable troops ; it was also thought that, since those 
countries had for centuries been excluded from the enjoyment of constitutional rights, 
and subjected to a military organization in the name of the Emperor, they would ea- 
sily be induced to rise at his bidding. 

Croatia and Slavonia were chosen to begin this rebellion, because in those countries 
the inhuman policy of Prince Metternich had, with a view to the weakening of all 
parties, for years cherished hatred against the Hungarian nation. By exciting in every 
possible manner the most unfounded national jealousies, and by employing the most 
disgraceful means, he had succeeded in inflaming a party with rage, although the Hun- 
garians, far from desiring to oppress the Croatians, allowed the most unrestrained de- 
velopment to the provincial institutions of Croatia, and shared with their Croatian 
and Slavonian brethren their political rights, even going the length of sacrificing some 
of their own rights, by acknowledging special privileges and immunities in those de- 
pendencies. 

The Ban revolted, therefore, in the name of the Emperor, and rebelled openly against 
the King of Hungary, who is, however, one and the same person ; and he went so far 
as to decree the separation of Croatia and Slavonia from Hungary, with which they 
had been united for eight hundred years, as well as to incorporate them with the Aus- 
trian empire. Public opinion and undoubted facts threw the blame of these proceed- 
ings on the Archduke Louis, uncle to the emperor, on his brother, the Archduke Fran- 
cis Charles, and especially on the consort of the last-named prince, the Archduchess 
Sophia; and since the Ban in this act of rebellion openly alleged that he acted as a 
faithful subject of the Emperor, the ministry of Hungary requested their sovereign, by 
a public declaration, to wipe off the stigma which these proceedings threw upon the 
family. At that moment affairs were not prosperous for Austria in Italy ; the Empe- 
ror, therefore, did proclaim that the Ban and his associates were guilty of high treason, 
and of exciting to rebellion. But while publishing this edict, the Ban and his accom- 
plices were covered with favors at court, and supplied for their enterprise with money, 
arms, and ammunition. The Hungarians, confiding in the royal proclamation, and not 
wishing to provoke a civil conflict, did not hunt out those proscribed traitors in their 
lair, and only adopted measures for checking any extension of the rebellion. But soon 
afterwards the inhabitants of South Hungary, of Servian race, were excited to rebellion 
by precisely the same means. 

These were also declared by the king to be rebels, but were, nevertheless, like the 
others, supplied with money, arms, and ammunition. The king's commissioned offi- 
cers and civil servants enlisted bands of robbers in the principality of Servia to 
strengthen the rebels, and aid them in massacreing the peaceable Hungarian and Ger- 
man inhabitants of the Banat. The command of these rebellious bodies was further 
intrusted to the rebel leaders of the Croatians. 

During this rebellion of the Hungarian Servians, scenes of cruelty were witnessed at 
which the heart shudders, — the peaceable inhabitants were tortured with a cruelty 
which makes the hair stand on end. Whole towns and villages, once flourishing, were 
laid waste; Hungarians fleeing before these murderers were reduced to the condition 



14 



KOSSUTH. 



of vagrants and beggars in their own country ; the most lovely districts were converted 
into a wilderness. 

Thus were the Hungarians driven to self-defense, but the Austrian Cabinet had dis- 
patched some time previously the bravest portions of the national troops to Italy, to 
oppress the kingdoms of Lombardy and Venice, notwithstanding that our country was 
at home bleeding from a thousand wounds ; still she had allowed them to leave for 
the defense of Austria. The greater part of the Hungarian regiments were, according 
to the old system of government, scattered through the provinces of the empire. In 
Hungary itself, the troops quartered were mostly Austrian, and they afforded more 
protection to the rebels than to the laws, or to the internal peace of the country. 

The withdrawal of these troops, and the return of the national iiiilitia, was demanded 
of the government, but was either refused or its fulfillment delayed; and when our 
brave comrades, on hearing the distress of the country, returned in masses, they were 
persecuted, and such as were obliged to yield to superior force were disarmed and sen- 
tenced to death for having defended their country against rebels. 

The Hungarian Ministry begged the King earnestly to issue orders to all troops and 
commanders of fortresses in Hungary, enjoining fidelity to the constitution and obedi- 
ence to the ministers of Hungary. Such a proclamation was sent to the Palatine, the 
Viceroy of Hungary, Archduke Stephen, at Buda. The necessary letters were written 
and sent to the post-office. But this nephew of the King, the Archduke Palatine, 
shamelessly caused these letters to be smuggled back from the post-office, although 
they had been countersigaed by the responsible minister ; and they were afterwards 
found amongst his papers when he treacherously departed from the country. 

The rebel Ban menaced the Hungarian coast with an attack, and the government, 
with the King's consent, ordered an armed corps to march into Styria for the defense 
of Fiume ; but this whole force received orders to march into Italy. Yet such abomi- 
nable treachery was not disavowed by the Vienna cabinet. 

: The rebel force occupied Fiume, and disunited it from the kingdom of Hungary; 
and this abominable deception was disavowed by the Vienna cabinet, as having been 
a misunderstanding. The furnishing of arms, ammunition, and money to the rebels of 
Croatia, was also declared to have been a misunderstanding. Finally, instructions 
were issued to the effect that, until speciaV orders were given, the army and the com- 
manders of fortresses were not to follow the orders of the Hungarian ministers, but 
were to execute those of the Austrian cabinet. 

Finall)^, to reap the fruit of so much perfidy, the Emperor Francis Joseph dared to 
call himself King of Hungary in the manifesto of 9th March, wherein he openly de- 
clares that he erases the Hungarian nation from the list of the independent nations of 
Europe, and that he divided its territory into five parts, dividing Transylvania, Croatia, 
Slavonia, and Fiume from Hungary ; creating at the same time a (Woywodshaft) 
principality for the Servian rebels ; and, having paralyzed the political existence of the 
country, declared it incorporate into the Austrian monarchy. 

Never was so disgraceful a line of policy followed towards a nation. Hungary, un- 
prepared with money, arms, and troops, and not expecting to be called on to make re- 
sistance, was entangled in a net of treachery, and was obliged to defend itself against 
this threatened annihilation with the aid of volunteers, national guards, and an undis- 
ciplined, unarmed levy en masse, aided by the few regular troops that remained in the 
country. In open battles, the Hungarians have, however, been successful ; but they 
could not rapidly enough put down the Servian rebels, and those of the military fron- 
tier, who were led by officers devoted to Austria, and were enabled to take refuge be- 
hind entrenched positions. 

It was necessary to provide a new armed force The King, still pretending to yield 
to the undeniably lawful demands of the nation, had summoned a new Diet for the 
2d July, 1848, and had called upon the representatives of the nation to provide soldiers 
and money for the suppression of the Servian and Croatian rebellion, and the re-estab- 
lishment of public peace. He, at the same time, issued a solemn proclamation in his 
own name, and in that of his family, condemning and denouncing the Croatian and 
Servian rebellion. The necessary steps were taken by the Diet. A levy of 200,000 
men, and a subsidy of 40,000,000 of florins, were voted as the necessary force, and the 
bills were laid before the King for the royal sanction. At the same moment, the Hun- 
garians gave an unexampled proof of their loyalty, by inviting the King, who had fled 
to Innspruckj to go to Pesth, and by his presence tranquillize the people, trusting to the 



DECLARATION OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE. 15 

loyalty of the Hungarians, who had shown themselves at all times the best support* 
of the throne. 

This request was proffered in vain, for Radetsky had in the meantime been victori- 
ous in Italy. The house of Lorraine-Hapsburg, restored to confidence by that victory, 
thought the time come to take off the mask, and to involve Hungary, still bleeding 
from past wounds, in the horrors of a fresh war of oppression. The King from that 
moment be|;an to address the man whom he himself had branded as a rebel as "dear 
and loyal" [Lieber Getreuer) ; he praised him for having revolted, and encouraged him 
to proceed in the path he had entered upon. 

He expressed a like sympathy for the Servian rebels, whose hands yet reeked from 
the massacres they had perpetrated. It was under this command that the Ban of Cro- 
atia, after being proclaimed as a rebel, assembled an army, and announced his commis- 
sion from the King to carry fire and sword into Hungary, upon which the Austrian 
troops stationed in the country united with him. The commandants of the fortresses, 
Essey and Temeswar Gyulaschervar, and the commanders of the forces in the Banat 
and in Transylvania, breaking their oaths taken to the country, treacherously surren- 
dered their trusts ; a Slavack clergyman with the commission of colonel, who had 
fraternized at Vienna with the revolted Czechs, broke into Hungary, and the rebel 
Croat leader advanced with confidence, through an unprepared country, to occupy its 
capital, expecting that the army in Hungary would not oppose him. 

Even then the Diet did not give up all confidence in the power of the royal oath, 
and the King was once more requested to order the rebels to quit the country. The 
answer given was a reference to a manifesto of the Austrian ministry, declaring it to 
be their determination to deprive the Hungarian nation of the independent manage- 
ment of their financial, commercial, and war affairs. The King at the same time re- 
fused his assent to the laws submitted for approval respecting the troops and the sub- 
sidy for covering the expenditure. 

Upon this the Hungarian ministers resigned, but the names submitted by the Presi- 
dent of the Council, at the demand of the King, were not approved of for successors. 
The Diet then, bound by its duty to secure the interests of the country, voted the sup- 
plies, and ordered the troops to be levied. The nation obeyed the summons with readi- 
ness. 

The representatives of the people then summoned the nephew of the Emperor to 
join the camp, and, as Palatine, to lead the troops against the rebels. He not only 
obeyed the summons, but made public professions of his devotion to the cause. As 
soon, however, as an engagement threatened, he fled secretly from the camp and the 
country like a coward traitor. Amongst his papers a plan formed by him some time 
previously was found, according to which Hungary was to be simultaneously attacked 
on nine sides — from Styria, Austria, Moravia, Silesia,~Galicia, and Transylvania. 

From a correspondence with the Minister of War, seized at the same time, it was 
discovered that the commanding generals in the military frontier and the Austrian 
provinces adjoining Hungary had received orders to enter Hungary, and to attack the 
rebels with their united forces. 

This attack from nine points at once really began. The most painful aggression 
took place in Transylvania, for the traitorous commander in that district did not con- 
tent himself with the practices considered lawful in war by disciplined troops. He 
stirred up the Wallachian peasants to take arms against their own constitutional rights, 
and, aided by the rebellious Servian hordes, commenced a course of Vandalism and ex- 
tinction, sparing neither women, children, nor aged men; murdering and torturing the 
defenseless Hungarian inhabitants ; burning the most flourishing villages and towns, 
amongst which, Nagy-Enyed, the seat of learning for Transylvania, was reduced to a 
heap of ruins. 

But the Hungarian nation, although taken by surprise, unarmed and unprepared, did 
not abandon its future prospects in any agony of despair. 

Measures were immediately taken to increase the small standing army by volun- 
teers and the levy of the people. These troops, supplying the want of experience by 
the enthusiasm arising from the feeling that they had right on their side, defeated the 
Croatian armaments, and drove them out of the country. 

One of their leaders appealed, after an unsuccessful fight, to the generosity of the 
Hungarians for a truce, which he used by night, and surreptitiously, to escape with 



16 KOSSUTH. 

his beaten troops; the other corps, of more than 10,000 men, was surrounded and 
taken prisoners, from the general to the last private. 

The defeated army fled in the direction of Vienna, where the Emperor continued 
his demoralizing policy, and nominated the beaten and flying rebel as his plenipoten- 
tiary and substitute in Hungary, suspending, by this act, the constitution and institu- 
tions of the country, all its authorities, courts of justice and tribunals, laying the king- 
dom under martial law, and placing in the hand of, and under the unlimited authority 
of, a rebel, the honor, the property, and the lives of the people — in the hand of a man 
who, with armed bands, had braved the laws, and attacked the constitution of the 
country. 

But the House of Austria was not contented with the unjustifiable violation of oaths 
taken by its head. 

The rebellious Ban was given under the protection of the troops stationed near 
Vienna, and commanded by Prince Windischgratz. These troops, after taking Vienna 
by storm, were led as an imperial Austrian army to conquer Hungary. But the Hun- 
garian nation, persisting in its loyalty, sent an envoy to the advancing enemy. This 
envoy, coming under a flag of truce, was treated as a prisoner,. and thrown into prison. 
No heed was paid to the remonstrances and the demands of the Hungarian nation for 
justice. The threat of the gallows was, on the contrary, thundered against all who 
had taken arms in defense of a wretched and oppressed country. But before the army 
had time to enter Hungary, a family revolution in the tyrannical reigning house was 
perpetrated at Olmutz. Ferdinand V. was forced to resign a throne which had been 
polluted with so much blood and perjury ; and the son of Francis Charles, who also 
abdicated his claim to the inheritance, the youthful Archduke Francis Joseph, caused 
himself to be proclaimed Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. But, according 
to the family compact, no one can dispose of the constitutional throne but the Hunga- 
rian nation. 

At this critical moment, the Hungarian nation demanded nothing more than the 
maintenance of its laws and institutions, and peace guaranteed by their integrity. 
Had the assent of the nation to this change in the occupant of the throne been asked 
in a legal manner, and the young prince offered to take the customary oath that he 
would preserve the Constitution, the Hungarian nation would not have refused to 
elect him king, in accordance with the treaties extant, and to crown him with St. 
Stephen's crown before he had dipped his hand in the blood of the people. 

He, however, refusing to perform an act so sacred in the eyes of God and man, and 
in strange contrast to the innocence natural to youthful breasts, declared in his first 
words his intention of conquering Hungary, which he dared to call a rebellious coun- 
try, although he himself had raised rebellion there, and of depriving it of that inde- 
pendence which it had maintained for a thousand years, to incorporate it into the 
Austrian monarchy. 

And he has but too well labored to keep his word. He ordered the army under 
Windischgratz to enter Hungary, and, at the same time, directed several corps of 
troops to attack the country from Galicia and Styria. Hungary resisted the projected 
invasion ; but being unable to make head against so many countries at once, on ac- 
count of the devastation carried on in several parts of the interior by the excited 
rebels, and being thus prevented from displaying its whole power of defense, the 
troops were, in the first instance, obliged to retire. To save the capital from the hor- 
rors of a storm like that to which Prague and Vienna had mercilessly been exposed, 
and not to place the fortunes of a nation, which deserved better, on the die of a 
pitched battle, for which there had not been sufficient preparation, the capital was 
abandoned, and the Diet and National Government removed in January last to De- 
breczin, trusting to the help of a just God, and to the energies of the nation, to pre- 
vent the cause from being lost, even when it should be seen that the capital was given 
up. Thanks be to Heaven, the cause was not lost ! 

But even then an attempt was made to bring about a peaceful arrangement, and a 
deputation was sent to the generals of the perjured dynasty. This house, in its blind 
self-confidence, refused to enter into any negotiation, and dared to demand an uncondi- 
tional submission from the nation. The deputation was further detained, and one of 
the number, the form.er president of the ministry, was even thrown into prison. The 
deserted capital was occupied, and was turned into a place of execution : a part of the 
prisoners of war were there consigned to the axe, another part were thrown into dun- 



DECLARATION OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE. 17 

geons, while the remainder were exposed to fearful sufferings from hunger, and were 
thus forced to enter the ranks of the army in Italy. 

The measure of the crimes of the Austrian house was, however, filled up, when, 
after its defeat, it applied for help to the Emperor of Russia ; and, in spite of the re- 
monstrances and protestations of the Porte, and of the consuls of the European powers 
at Bucharest, in defiance of international rights, and to the endangering of the balance 
of power in Europe, caused the Russian troops stationed in Wallachia to be led into 
Transylvania, for the destruction of the Hungarian nation. 

Three months ago we were driven back upon the Theiss : our just arms have already 
recovered all Transylvania ; Clausenburg, Hermannstadt, and Cronstadt, are taken ; one 
portion of the troops of Austria is driven into the Bukowina ; another, together with 
the Russian force sent to aid them, is totally defeated, and to the last man obliged to 
evacuate Transylvania, and to flee into Wallachia. IJpper Hungary is cleared of foes. 

The Servian rebellion is further suppressed ; the forts of St. Thomas and the Roman 
entrenchment have been taken by storm ; and the whole country between the Danube 
and the Theiss, including the country of Bacs, has been recovered for the nation. 

The commander-in-chief of the perjured house of Austria has himself been defeated 
in five consecutive battles, and has with his whole army been driven back upon and 
even over the Danube. 

Founding a line of conduct upon all these occurrences, and confiding in the justice of 
an eternal God, we, in the face of the civilized world, in reliance upon the natural 
rights of the Hungarian nation, and upon the power it has developed to maintain them, 
further impelled by that sense of duty which urges every nation to defend its exist- 
ence, do hereby declare and proclaim in the name of the nation legally represented by 
us the following : 

1. Hungary, with Transylvania, as legally united with it, and the possessions and 
dependencies, are hereby declared to constitute a free independent sovereign state. 
The territorial unity of this state is declared to be inviolable, and its territory to be 
indivisible. 

2. The house of Hapshurg-Lorraine, having by treachery, perjury, and levying of 
war against the Hungarian nation, as well by its outrageous violation of all compacts, 
in breaking up the integral territory of the kingdom, in the separation of Transylvania, 
Croatia, Sclavonia. Fiume, and its districts, from Hungary ; further, by compassing the 
destruction of the independence of the country by arms, and by calling in the disci- 
plined army of a foreign power, for the purpose of annihilating its nationality, by vio- 
lation both of the Pragmatic Sanction and of treaties concluded between Austria and 
Hungary, on which the alliance between the two countries depended, is, as treacherous 
and perjured, for ever excluded from the throne of the united states of Hungary and 
Transylvania, and all their possessions and dependencies, and are hereby deprived of 
the style and title, as well as of the armorial bearings, belonging to the crown of Hun- 
gary, and declared to be banished for ever from the united countries and their depen- 
dencies and possessions. They are, therefore, declared to be deposed, degraded, and 
banished for ever from the Hungarian territory. 

3. The Hungarian nation, in the exercise of its rights and sovereign will, being de- 
termined to assume the position of a free and independent state amongst the nations of 
Europe, declares it to be its intention to establish and maintain friendly and neighborly 
relations with those states with which it was formerly united under the same sover- 
eign, as well as to contract alliances with all other nations. 

4. The form of government to be adopted for the future will be fixed by the Diet 
of the nation. 

But until this point shall be decided, on the basis of the ancient and received princi- 
ples which have been recognized for ages, the government of the united countries, their 
possessions and dependencies, shall be conducted on personal responsibility, and under 
the obligation to render an account of all acts, by Louis Kossuth, who has, by acclama- 
tion, and with the unanimous approbation of the Diet of the nation, been named gov- 
erning president (gubernator)^ and the ministers whom he shall appoint. 

And this resolution of ours we proclaim and make known to all the nations of the 
civilized world, with the conviction that the Hungarian nation will be received by them 
amongst the free and independent nations of the world with the same friendship and 
free acknowledgment of its rights which the Hungarians proffer to other countries. 

We also hereby proclaim and make known to all the inhabitants of the united states 

2 



18 KOSSUTH. 

of Hungary and Transylvania, their possessions and dependencies, that all authorities, 
communes, towns, and the civil officers, both in the counties and cities, are completely 
set free and released from all the obligations under which they stood, by oath or other- 
wise, to the said house of Hapsburg, and that any individual daring to contravene this 
decree, and by word or deed in any way to aid or abet any one violating it, shall be 
treated and punished as guilty of high treason. And by the publication of this decree, 
we hereby bind and oblige all the inhabitants of these countries to obedience to the 
government now instituted formally, and endowed with all necessary legal powers. 
Debreczin, Uth Jpril,1849. 



ETJSSIAif INTEKVENTION. TREASON OF GOEGET. ABDICATION OF 

KOSSUTH. 

Before the news of these events reached Vienna, the Russian intervention had been 
resolved upon, and Count Stadion, the Prime Minister, unable to resist, and terrified at 
contemplation of the effects, went mad. The Russian army marched slowly towards 
Hungary, and Gorgey made but little effort to oppose them. Several battles were 
fought with various success. Gorgey, instead of joining the armies of Klapka and 
Bern, made a sort of tour through Hungary, as if for the purpose of sparing the forces 
of the enemy the loss from any battles. The Russian and Austrian armies effected a 
junction ; and on the 4th of May Buda was stormed. Kossuth and the Government 
retired from Pesth to Szegedhn, and thence to Arad. Here Gorgey arrived on the 
7th of August, 1849, with his army dispirited and demoralized by long retreat and lax 
discipline. During the whole of his retreat Gorgey had been in constant communica- 
tion with the Russians, and, arriving at Arad, he immediately went to Kossuth, and 
told him the Russians had promised to guarantee the laws of 1848, on condition that 
Kossuth should cease to be at the head of the Government, and appealed to him, there- 
fore, as a patriot, to abdicate. On the 9th Dembinski's army, who had given up his 
command to Bem, was defeated at Temesvar. Kossuth called a council of Ministers ; 
and as the majority were for accepting the Russian terms, and Gorgey was in posses- 
sion of the fortress, he, on condition that Gorgey would insure to Hungary the laws 
of the previous March, signed his abdication. Gorgey made no effort to fulfill his 
pledge, but, on the contrary, on the 13th, surrendered at Villagos his entire army. The 
news spread fast, and, with little exception, all the other forces dispersed. 

Kossuth, with about 5000 men, crossed the frontier at Orsova on the 18th of August, 
after having received from the Pacha of Viddim assurance that he should be treated as 
the guest of the Sultan. This known at Constantinople, the Ambassadors of Russia 
and Austria at once demanded that they should be given up. A message was at once 
sent to the Hungarians that their only safety lay in their becoming Mahomedans and 
subjects of the Turkish empire. Bem and Kemetty adopted the condition. Kossuth 
answered he would prefer death to the abjuration of his faith. On the 1st of October 
the Sultan declared that he would not on any condition give up the refugees, and vio- 
late the laws of hospitality, until he knew how far England and France would support 
him ; but that in the interim he would consent to their being kept as prisoners in some 
distant part of the empire. At the end of October the fleet of Admiral Parker entered 
the Dardanelles, and there was an end at once of the threats of Russia and Austria. 



HIS FAMILY. 19 

Kossuth and his followers were sent first to Shumla, thence to Rhuda on Nov. 19, 
where they arrived on the 12th of April, 1850. Kossuth occupied the apartments over 
the barrack gate ; and, with his companions in exile, occupied his time in laying out 
as a garden the ground allowed them for exercise. There his hours were spent in 
study, and, with Johnson's Dictionary and Shakspeare for guides, he taught himself 
such English as the people have heard from him at Southampton, Winchester, Ipswich, 
London, Birmingham, and Manchester. 

In the October of 1850 Kossuth was visited, at Kutaya ,by Mr. David Urquhart, M.P. 
for Staflord ; Mr. Algernon Massingberd ; Rigaldi, whom Lamartine calls the great- 
est improvisatore that has ever appeared ; and the author of the " Revelations of Rus- 
sia," in whose yacht they went. They remained at Kutaya a month, and it was on 
that occasion that Mr. Massingberd requested that, on Kossuth visiting England, he 
would honor him by becoming his guest. 

There were threats from Austria of occupying the Moldavian provinces of Turkey 
if the Hungarians were liberated ; but, on the 22d of August, Suliman Bey came to 
Kossuth, announced his freedom, kissed his hand, and said, " Go ; you will find friends 
every where now ; do not forget those who were friends when you had but few." On 
the 1st of September, Kossuth left Kutaya, by way of Spetzia, Marseilles, and Lisbon, 
and reached England on the 28th of October. 

The sympathy of the English people became enlisted, and memorials were signed 
calling upon the government to interfere for their liberation. The United States sent 
their steamer Mississippi to convey him to America. 

IMPRISONMENT OF KOSSUTh's CHILDKEN ESCAPE OF MADAME 

KOSSUTH. 

On the 10th of January, 1841, Kossuth married Teresa Meszlenyi, who, during his 
imprisonment, had come with her mother to reside at Pesth, and had become intimate 
with his sisters through the custom, then universal, of all strangers calling to pay their 
respects to the family of the imprisoned patriot. 

The escape of Madame Kossuth and her children is a story full of interest. • Her 
constant wish was for the quiet retirement of home. She had no higher ambition 
than to enjoy the society of her husband in their social circle ; but, determined that he 
should not be alone in the dangers and risks of war, she resolved to accompany him 
from Pesth to Araad; but, to spare the children the privations to which, were. they 
with the army, they must inevitably be exposed, they were intrusted to the care of a 
female cousin, by whom they were to be conveyed to another relative. When 
Kossuth had, trusting to the promises of Gorgey, signed his abdication at Arad, one 
of his most faithful followers was sent for the children ; Madame Kossuth remained to 
accompany them ; and, on their way, they were all taken prisoners in the county of 
' Vezsprem, and conveyed to prison at Presburg. At this time Madame Kossuth was 
taken dangerously ill. In prison the children were far from being kindly cared for ; in 
the garden they were closely guarded by soldiers, their food was no better than that of 



20 



KOSSUTH. 




MADAME KOSSUTH AND CHILDREN. 

grown-up prisoners, and but for the kindness of persons in the town they would often 
have been on short allowance. Their tutor, the gentleman who had been taken with 
them, and whom they begged to be allowed to see, was not permitted to come to 
them ; but when they had been a couple of months in confinement Haynau came, that 
he might enjoy the pleasure of seeing Kossuth's children in jail ; and having satisfied 
his curiosity with sight of ihem, and impressed their memory with his fierce look and 
long mustache, he went away, promising, however, that they should be better fed. 
A proclamation was issued declaring that whoever should house Madame Kossuth 
would place himself under martial law. The children were in prison, there was no 
hope of her being enabled to join them, and she therefore, as the only hope of safety, 
set out alone for Shumla. It would be impossible to give a detailed account of her 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 21 

journey without even now compromising many parties. In various poor disguises she 
wandered about — was conveyed from place to place in peasant's carts — was frequently 
whole days without food — and, after four months of toil, anxiety, and hardship, she 
reached Shumla on the 16th of January. The children had been six months in prison, 
when, on application of Madame Meszlenyi, Kossuth's sister, they were given to 
her and their grandmother at Pesth, but were kept constantly under the eye of the 
police. Here they excited the greatest enthusiasm. When they went ont the people 
flocked round them; shoemakers must make their shoes for nothing, tailors their 
clothes ; the country people brought them bread, flour, fowls, all sorts of provisions ; 
many a poor peasant who had but a couple of eggs brought them. The children were 
looked upon as giving assurance of Kossuth's return. " He never left his children," 
said they ; " he will come back ; we shall have Kossuth again." These demonstra- 
tions determined the government to let the children be sent to Kutaya. They left 
Pesth in May, 1850, and on the occasion were the subject of quite a demonstration: 
thousands flocked to see them off", and parted from them with regret. 



ADDRESS OF KOSSUTH TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 

Two YEARS ago, by God's providence, I, who would be only an humble citizen, held 
in my hands the destiny of the reigning house of Austria. 

Had I been ambitious, or had I believed that this treacherous family were so basely 
wicked as they afterward proved themselves to be, the tottering pillars of their throne 
would have fallen at my command, and buried the crowned traitors beneath their ruins, 
or would have scattered them like dust before a tempest, homeless exiles, bearing 
nothing but the remembrance of their perfidy, and that royalty which they deserved 
to lose through their own wickedness. 

I, however, did not take advantage of these favorable circumstances, though the en- 
tire freedom of my dear native land was the only wish of my heart. My requests 
were of that moderate nature which, in the condition of Hungary and Europe, seemed 
best fitted for my countrymen. I asked of the king not the complete independence of 
my beloved country — not even any new rights or privileges — but simply these three 
things : 

First : That the inalienable rights sanctioned by a thousand years, and by the con- 
stitution of my fatherland, should be guaranteed by a national and responsible adminis- 
tration. 

Second : That every inhabitant of my country, without regarding language or reli- 
gion, should be free and equal before the law — all classes having the same privileges 
and protection from the law. 

Third : That all the people of the Austrian empire that acknowledged the same 
person as emperor whom we Hungarians recognized as king, and the same law of suc- 
cession, should have restored their ancient constitutional rights, of which they had un- 
justly been despoiled, modified to suit their wants and the spirit of the age. 



22 KOSSUTH. 

The first demand was not for any new grant or concession, but simply a fresh gua- 
rantee. In the arrangement made with our ancestors, when, by their free will, they 
elevated the house of Hapsburg to the throne, a condition was made that the king 
should preserve the independence and constitution of the country. This independence 
and this constitution were the very vitality of our national being. During three cen- 
turies twelve kings of the house of Hapsburg had sworn, in the presence of the eternal 
God, before ascending the throne, that they would preserve our independence and the 
constitution ; and their lives are but a history of perpetual and accursed perjury. Yet 
such conduct did not weaken our fidelity. No nation ever manifested more faithful- 
ness to their rulers. And though we poor Hungarians made endless sacrifices, often at 
the expense of our national welfare — though these kings in times of peace drew their 
support from us, and in times of war or danger relied upon the unconquerable strength 
of our army — though we ever trusted in their words — they deceived us a thousand 
limes, and made our condition worse. 

While other nations were able to apply all their energies to promote the general 
welfare and to develop their means of happiness, we had to stand on guard, like the 
watchmen mentioned in Scripture, for three centuries, to prevent our treacherous kings 
from destroying entirely the foundation of our national existence — our constitution and 
independence. 

I, as the representative of my countrymen, asked nothing more than a constitutional 
ministry whose responsibility would prevent the king from violating his oath. 

The second demand was still less for any political right. We asked for nothing 
more than a reform in the internal administration of the State — a simple act of justice 
which the aristocracy owed the people. And in this how much the king would have 
gained ! The strength of his throne would have been increased tenfold by thus win- 
ning the affections of his faithful people. 

The third demand was prompted by humanity and fraternal feeling. It was the 
proper and holy mission of our nation, as the oldest member of the empire, and pos- 
sessing a constitutional form of government, to raise its voice in behalf of those sister 
nations under the same ruler, and who were united to us by so many ties of relation- 
ship. Lovers of freedom, we would not ask liberty for ourselves alone : we would 
not boast of privileges that others did not enjoy, but desired to be free in fellowship 
with free nations around us. This motive was inspired by the conviction that two 
crowns — a constitutional and despotic crown^ — could not be worn by the same head, no 
more than two opposing dispositions can harmonize in the same breast, or than a man 
can be good and evil at the same time. 

The king and royal family granted these requests, appealing to the sanctity of their 
oaths as a g^iarantee of their fulfillment ; and I, weak in myself, but strong through the 
confidence of my countrymen and the noble sympathy of the Austrian people, pro- 
claimed every where, amidst the raging storm of revolution, that " the house of Aus- 
tria should stand ; for, by the blessing of the Almighty, it had begun to move in the 
right direction, and would be just to its people."' It stood, and stood, too, at a time 
when, whatever might have been the fate of Hungary, the revolutionary tempest, 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 23 

under my direction, would have blown away this antiquated and helpless dynasty like 
chaff before the winds of heaven. 

I not only preserved the house of Austria, but placed in its hands the materials of a 
long and glorious future — the foundation of an indestructible power in the affection of 
thirty-two millions of people. I tendered them the fidelity and assistance of my own 
heroic Hungary, which alone was able to defend them against the assaults of the 
world. I afforded them the glorious opportunity — more glorious than had ever been 
presented before — of establishing an impregnable barrier to protect freedom, civiliza- 
tion, and progress, against the Cossack power, which now threatens Europe, To at- 
tain this honor, this glory, one thin^ only was necessary — that they should remain 
faithful to their oaths. But when was it that Austria was not treacherous 1 We look 
in vain for as much honor as is found even among robbers in the Hapsburg family. 

On the very day they signed the grant of those moderate demands of the Hungarian 
people, and solemnly swore before God and the nation to maintain them, they secretly 
resolved and planned the most cruel conspiracy against us. They determined to break 
their oaths, to desolate the land with insurrection, conflagration, and blood, till, feeble 
and exhausted under the burden of a thousand miseries, Hungary might be struck from 
the roll of living nations. They then hoped, by the power of the bayonet, and, if ne- 
cessary, by the arms of Russia, to erect a united and consolidated empire, like the Rus- 
sian, of sixteen various nations ; they hoped to realize their long-conceived purpose of 
making themselves an absolute power. 

Never were so many hellish arts used against a nation before. Not suspecting a 
counter-revolution or an attack, we were not prepared to defend ourselves, when sud- 
denly we were surprised by danger. The perfidious Hapsburgs, destitute of all 
shame, and rejoicing in the anticipation of an easy victory, hesitated not to disclose 
before the civilized world their horrible plans — to subjugate us by the force of arms, 
to excite hatred of race, to call in the aid of robbers, incendiaries, and reckless 
insurgents. 

At this crisis of great danger, when many of our ablest men even were ready to 
yield themselves to this decree of destruction, I stood among those who called the na- 
tion to arms. And, confiding in a just God, we cursed the cowards who were prepar- 
ing to abandon their native land, to submit to a wicked despotism, and to purchase a 
miserable existence by sacrificing liberty. I called the nation to arms in self-defense. 
I acted not with blind presumption ; and emotions of despair found no place in my 
breast — for he who despairs is not fit to guide a people. I estimated the valor and 
power of my country, and on the verge of a fearful struggle I had faith to promise vic- 
tory, if Hungary would remain true to herself, and fortify her breast with the impul- 
sive fire of a strong will. 

To sustain the stern resolution to combat such an enemy, we were supported, first, 
above everything, by our unshaken confidence in God, whose ways are past finding out, 
but who supports the right, and blesses the cause of an honest people fighting for free- 
dom ; secondly, by a love of country and the holy desire of liberty, which makes the 
child a giant, and increases the strength of the valiant ; and, thirdly, by your example, 
noble Americans ! — you, the chosen nation of the God of Liberty ! My countrymen — 



24 KOSSUTH. 

a religious, a God-venerating people — in whose hearts burned the all-powerful feeling 
of patriotism, were inspired by the influence of your sublime example. 

Free citizens of America ! from your history, as from the star of hope in midnight 
gloom, we drew our confidence and resolution in the doubtful days of severe trial. 
Accept, in the name of my countrymen, this declaration as a tribute of gratitude. And 
you, excellent people, who were worthy to be chosen by the Almighty as an example 
to show the world how to deserve freedom, how to win it, and how to use it — you will 
allow that the Hungarians, though weaker and less fortunate than you, through the decay- 
ing influences of the old European society, are not unworthy to be your imitators, and 
that you would be pleased to see the stars of your glorious flag emblazon the double cross 
of the Hungarian coat-of-arms. When despotism hurled defiance at us, and began the 
bloody war, your inspiring example upheaved the nation as one man, and legions, with 
all the means of war, appeared to rise from nothing, as the tender grass shoots up after 
spring showers. 

Though we were inferior in numbers to the enemy, and could not compare with 
their well trained forces — though our arms were shorter than theirs — yet the heroic 
sons of Hungary supplied the want of numbers by indomitable bravery, and lengthen- 
ed their weapons by a step further in advance. 

The world knows how bravely the Hungarians fought. And it is not for me, who 
was identified with the war — who, obeying the wishes of the nation, stood faithfully 
at the helm of government — to extol the heroic deeds of my countrymen. I may 
mention, however, that, while every day it became more evident that the heart of Eu- 
rope beat to the pulsations of the Hungarian struggle, we maintained the unequal con- 
flict alone, cut off from the rest of the world and all external aid, till a year ago we 
laid the haughty power of the tyrant house of Hapsburg in the dust ; and bad it not 
been for the intentional and traitorous disregard of my commands by one of our lead- 
ers, who afterward shamefully betrayed the country, not only would the imperial 
family have been driven from Vienna, but the entire Austrian nation would have been 
liberated ; and though by such treason this base family saved themselves from destruc- 
tion, they were so far humbled in March, 1849, that, not knowing how to be just, they 
implored foreign aid; and threw themselves at the feet of the Czar. 

The emperor hoped that the Hungarian people could be terrified by his threatenings, 
and would prefer slavery to death ; but he was deceived. He sold his own liberty to 
Russia for aid to enslave his people. The choice of a coward is to purchase a misera- 
ble, ephemeral existence, even though at the cost of his honor and independence. 

The Austrians fought against us not only with arms and by the aid of traitors, but 
with studied and unceasing slander. They never ceased to impeach our motives and 
falsify our conduct, and vaunt the pretended justice of their own cause before the judg- 
ment-seat of public opinion. Eflforts were constantly made to weaken, among the 
people of Hungary, and among the nations of the world, that sympathy and force 
which spring from a righteous cause. 

Free citizens of North America ! you have given, in spite of these slanders, the full- 
est sympathy for the cause of my country. We had no opportunity to explain to you 
our motives and conduct, and refute the libels against us : but we said— and how truly 



ADBRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 25 

your noble and magnanimous conduct shows it ! — that such a nation knows how to de- 
fend a just and holy cause, and will give us its sympathy ; and this conviction inspired 
us with more confidence. Oh, that you had been a neighboring nation ! The Old 
World would now be free, and would not have to endure again those terrible convul- 
sions and rivers of blood which are inevitable. But the end is with God, and He will 
choose the means to fulfill his purposes. 

Ye great and free people ! receive the thanks of my country for your noble sympa- 
thy, which was a great moral support in our terrible conflict. 

When the house of Austria sold itself to the Autocrat, we, who were fatigued with 
our hard-earned victory, but not subdued or exhaused, saw with apprehension the spec- 
ter of Russian invasion— an invasion which violated the laws of nations, which was 
openly hostile to the cause of civilization, the rights of man, of order, and even to that 
principle which the diplomacy of Europe calls "the balance of power." I could not 
believe that the governments of Europe would permit this invasion ; for I expected 
they would intervene to effect a treaty of peace, if not so much on our account, yet to 
prevent Austria becoming the vassal of Russia — to check the growing strength and 
influence of the latter power in the East. 

We desired an honorable peace, and were willing to submit to any reasonable terms. 
We many times tendered the olive-branch. We asked the constitutional governments 
of Europe to interpose. They heard us not. The haughty imperial family, forgetting 
that they were the real traitors, rejected every proposition with the defying- expression 
that they "did not treat with rebels." Aye, more : they threw our ambassadors into 
prison, and one of them — the noblest of Hungary's sons — they cowardly and impiously 
murdered. Still we hesitated to tear asunder forever the bonds that united us. Ten 
months we fought, and fought victoriously, in defense ; and it was only when every 
attempt to bring about an honorable peace failed — when Francis Joseph, who was 
never our king, dared, in his manifesto of the 4th of March, 1849, to utter the curse 
" that Hungary should exist no lovger'^ — when there was no hope of arresting the Rus- 
sian invasion by diplomacy — when we saw that we must fight to save ourselves from 
being struck off" the earth as a nation — when the house of Austria, by its endless acts 
of injustice and cruelty, and by calling in the aid of a foreign power, had extinguished in 
the hearts of the Hungarian people every spark of affection — then, and then only, after 
so much patience, the nation resolved to declare its absolute independence. Then spoke 
the National Assembly the words which had long been uttered by every patriotic 
tongue : " Francis Joseph ! thou beardless young Nero ! thou darest to say, Hungary shall 
exist no more ? We, the people, answer. We do and will exist ; but you and your treacher- 
ous house shall stand no longer ! You shall no more be the kings of Hungary ! Be for- 
ever banished, ye perfidious traitors to the nation !" 

We were not only ready to accept any terms that were honorable, but we carefully 
abstained from doing anything which would give the Czar a pretense, which he had 
long sought, to meddle with our afifairs. 

The Hungarian nation loved freedom as the best gift of God, but it never thought of 
commencing a crusade against kings in the name of liberty. In Hungary there were 
none of those propagandists who alarm so much the rulers of the Old World. There 



^6 KOSSUTH. 

were no secret societies plotting conspiracies. My countrymen were not influenced by 
the theories of Communists or Socialists, nor were they what the Conservatives call 
Anarchists. The nation desired justice, and knew how to be just to all, irrespective of 
rank, language, or religion. A people so worthy of freedom were generous enough to 
leave something to time, and to be satisfied with a progressive development. No 
violence was used ; no just right was attacked ; and even some of those institutions 
were left undisturbed, which, in their principle and origin, were unjust, but which, 
having existed for centuries, could not be abolished at once with impunity. 

The Hungarian people did not wish to oppress any — not even the aristocracy : they 
were more ready to make sacrifices than to punish the descendants of nobility for the 
evils of misgovernment, and of those institutions which emanated from their ancestors ; 
nor would they let the many suffer for the sins of the few. 

There was no anarchy among us. Even in the bloodiest of the conflicts, when the 
human passions are most excited, there vt'as the most perfect order and security of pro- 
perty and person. How did the conduct of my noble countrymen compare with that 
of the " order-making" Austria ! Whenever the whirlwind of war ceased for a while 
where the social elements were left in chaos, the instinctive moral feelings of this in- 
corruptible people, in the absence of all government, preserved better order and safety 
than legions of police. A common spirit animated the whole nation — no secret aims, 
no personal or local attacks, but a bold and open defense in the face of the world. Fol- 
lowing the example of your great Washington, we adopted, as our policy, conciliation, 
justice and legality, and scrupulously observed the laws of nations. 

The Russians and Austrians made the soil of Wallachia the basis of military opera- 
tions : and the Turkish Government, which either knew not its own interests, or was 
unable to defend them, silently permitted this violation of treaties and the rights of na- 
tions thus humbling itself and betraying its own weakness. Several times we drove 
our enemies across the Wallachian boundaries ; for it was only necessary for our vic- 
torious army to advance into the countries of the Lower Danube to rouse the inhabit- 
ants against the Russians, and to transfer the war to their own soil. But we respect- 
ed the law of nations, and stopped our conquering forces on the confines of Wallachia. 
Her soil was sacred to us. Austria left Gallacia almost unprotected, and collected all 
her forces to attack us. Had we at this time sent a small portion of our army to Po- 
land, it would have caused a general insurrection, and that heroic but unfortunate na- 
tion would have revenged herself by throwing tbe Russian empire into a state of revo- 
lution. But we acted in defense only, and we deenied it a sin to precipitate other na- 
tions into a terrible and uncertain war, and we checked our sympathies. Besides, we 
avoided giving the Emperor of Russia a pretense for a war of retaliation against us. 
Oh, it was foolish — for the despotic hypocrite made a pretense ; he called our own 
struggle the Hungarian- Polish revolution, though the whole number of Poles in our 
armies did not exceed four thousand. 

We doubted not that the European powers would negotiate a peace for us, or that 
they would, at least, prevent the Russian invasion. They said they pitied us, honored 
our efforts, and condemned the conduct of Austria; but they could not help us, because 
Europe required a powerful Austrian empire, and they must support it, in spite of its 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 27 

evils, as a balance against Russian central and eastern Europe. What a mistake ! 
What diplomacy ! Is it not as clear as the sun that the Czar, in aiding Austria, would 
do it in such a manner as to obtain the greatest advantages for himself? Was it not 
manifest that Austria— who had always, through the help of Hungary, strength enough 
to oppose Russia, would, when she destroyed Hungary by Russian bayonets, no longer 
be an independent power, but merely the avante-garde of the Muscovite ? Yet Eu- 
rope permitted the invasion ! It is an indelible mark of blindness and shame. It is 
ever thus in the imbecile Old World, They treated us just as they treat Turkey. 
They assert always that the peace of Europe and the balance of power require the 
preservation of the Turkish empire — that Turkey must exist, to check the advance of 
the Cossack power. But, notwithstanding this, England and France destroyed the 
Turkish fleet at Navarino — a fleet which never could have injured them, but which 
might have contended with Russia in the Black Sea. 

Always the same worn-out, old, and fatal system of policy ! — while Russia, ever 
alert, seizes province after proyince from Turkey. She has made herself the sovereign 
of Moldavia and Wallachia, and is sapping the foundations of the Ottoman empire. 
Already Turkish officials are more dependent on the lowest Russian agents than upon 
their own Grand Vizier. 

Oh that Hungary had received but a slight token of moral support from the Euro- 
pean powers — from those powers whose dreams are troubled with fear of the advance 
of the Cossack ! Had only an English or a French agent come to us during our strug- 
gle, what might he not have done ! He, too, would have seen and estimated our abili- 
ty to sustain ourselves — he would have observed the humanity, the love of order, the 
reverence for liberty, which characterized the Hungarian nation. Had these two 
powers permitted a few ships to come to Ossore, laden with arms for the noble patri- 
ots who had asked in vain for weapons, the Hungarians would now have stood a more 
impregnable barrier against Russia than all the arts of a miserable and expensive di- 
plomacy. 

There was a time when we, with the neighboring Poles, saved Christianity in Eu- 
rope. And now I hesitate not to avow before God, that we alone — that my own Hun- 
gary—could have saved Europe from Russian domination. As the war in Hungary 
advanced, its character became changed. In the end, the results it contemplated were 
higher and far more important — nothing less, in fact, than universal freedom, which 
was not thought of in the beginning. This was not a choice ; it was forced upon us 
by the policy of the European nations, who, disregarding their own interests, suffered 
Russia to invade and provoke us. Yes, we were martyrs to the cause of freedom, and 
this glorious but painful destiny was imposed upon us. 

Though my dear native Hungary is trodden down, and the flower of her sons exe- 
cuted, or wandering exiles, and I, her Governor, writing from my prison in this distant 
Asiatic Turkey, I predict — and the eternal God hears my prediction — that there can be 
no freedom for the continent of Europe, and that the Cossacks from the shores of the 
Don will water their steeds in the Rhine, unless liberty be restored to Hungary. It is 
only with Hungarian freedom that the European nations can be free; and the smaller 
nationalities especially can have no future without us. 



28 



KOSSUTH. 



Nor could the united Russo- Austrian forces have conquered my heroic countrym 
had they not found a traitor to aid them in the man whom, believing in his honesty, 
and on account of liis skill, I raised from obscurity. Enjoying my confidence, the con- 
fidence of the nation and the army, I placed him at the head of our forces, giving him 
the most glorious part to perform ever granted to man. What an immortality was in 
his reach, had he been honest ! But he betrayed his country. Cursed be his name 
forever ! I will not open the bleeding wounds by the sad remembrance of this event, 
and will merely mention that the surrender at Vilagos was the crowning act of a long 
system of treachery secretly practiced — by not using the advantages which victories 
put in his hands — by not fulfilling my commands, under cunning pretenses — ^by destroy- 
ing national feeling in the army — by weakening its confidence — and by the destruc- 
tion, through unnecessary exposures and dangers, of that portion of the army that he 
could not currupt in his base designs to piake himself military dictator. God, in his 
inscrutable wisdom, knows why the traitor was permitted to be successful. In vain 
fell the bravest of men in this long war — in vain were the exertions of my brave coun- 
trymen — in vain did the aged father send, with pious heart, his only son, the prop of 
his declining years, and the bride her bridegroom — in vain did all private interests 
yield to the loftiest patriotism — in vain arose the prayers of a suffering people — in vain 
did the ardent wishes of every friend of freedom accompany our efforts — in vain did 
the Genius of Liberty hope for success. My country was martyred. Her rulers are 
hangmen. They have spoken the impious words that the liberty-loving nation " lies 
at the feet of the Czar?'' Instead of the thankful prayer of faith, of hope, and of love, 
the air of my native land is filled with the cries of despair, and I, her chosen leader, am 
an exile. The diplomacy of Europe has changed Turkish hospitality to me and my 
companions into hopeless bondage. It is a painful existence. My youthful children 
have begun the morning of their life in the hands of my country's destroyer, and I 

but no : desponding does not become me, for I am a man. I am not permitted, 

or I would say I envy the dead. Who is unfortunate ? I am in Broussa, where the 
great Hannibal once livedin exile, homeless like myself, but rich in services performed 
for his country, while I can claim only fidelity to mine. The ingratitude of his na- 
tion went with him in his banishment, but the sorrowful love of my countrymen fol- 
lows me to my place of exile. To thee, my God, I offer thanks that thou didst deem 
me worthy to suffer for dear Hungary. Let me suffer afflictions, but accept them as 
propitiatory sacrifices for my native land. 

And thou, Hungarian nation, yield not to despair ! Be patient : hope, and wait thy 
time ! Though all men forget thee, the God of Justice will not. Thy sufferings are 
recorded, and thy tears remembered. The blood of thy martyrs — thy noble sons — 
which moistened thy soil, will have its fruits. The victims which daily fall for thee 
are, like the ever-green cypress over the graves of the dead, the symbol of thy resur- 
rection. The races whom thy destroyer excited against thee by lies and cunning will 
be undeceived ; they will know that thou didst not fight for preeminence, but for the 
common liberty — that thou wast their brother, and bled for them also. The tempo- 
rary victory of our enemies will but serve to take the film from the eyes of the de- 
ceived people. The sentiment of sympathy for our sufferings will inspire among the 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



29 



smaller States and races the wish for a fraternal confederation— for that which I al- 
ways urged as the only safe policy and guarantee of freedom for them all. 

The realization of this idea will hurl the power of the haughty despots to the abyss 
of the past, and Hungary, free, surrounded by free nations, will be great, glorious and 
independent. 

At the moment when I hardly hoped for further consolation on earth, behold the 
God of Mercy freed my wife, and enabled her, through a thousand dangers, to reach 
me in my place of exile. Like a hunted deer, she could not for five months find in her , 
own native land a place of rest. The executioners of the beardless Nero placed a re- 
ward upon her head, but she has escaped the tyrants. She was to me and to my ex- 
iled countrymen like the rainbow to Noah, for she brought intelligence of hope in the 
unshaken souls of the Hungarian people, and in the afiectionate sympathy of the neigh- 
boring nations who had fought against us. They had aided the wife of the much-slan- 
dered Governor of Hungary. 

Although the sympathy of the world often depends upon the result of actions, and 
the successful are applauded, still Hungary by her noble bearing and trials has drawn 
the attention of the world. The sympathy which she has excited in both worlds, and 
the thundering curse which the lips of millions have pronounced against her destroyers, 
announce like the roaring of the wind before the storm the coming retribution of 
Heaven. 

Among the nations of the world there are two which demand our gratitude and 
affection. England, no less powerful than she is free and glorious, supported us by her 
sympathy, and by the approving voice of her noblest sons and the millions of her 
people. And that chosen land of freedom beyond the ocean — the all-powerful people 
of the United States, with their liberal Government — inspired us with hope, and gave 
us courage by their deep interest in our cause and sufferings, and by their condemna- 
tion of our executioners. 

The President of the United States, whom the confidence of a free people had ele- 
vated to the loftiest station in the world, in his Message to Congress announced that 
the American Government would have been the first to recognize the independence of 
Hungary. And the Senators and Representatives in Congress marked the destroyers 
of my country's liberty with the stigma of ignominy, and expressed, with indignant 
feelings, their contempt for the conduct of Austria, and their wish to break the diplo- 
matic intercourse with such a Government. They summoned the despots before the 
judgment-seat of humanity ; they proclaimed that the world would condemn them ; 
they declared that Austria and Russia had been unjust, tyrannical and barbarous, and 
deserved to be reprobated by mankind, while Hungary was worthy of universal 
sympathy. 

The Hungarians, more fortunate than I, who were able to reach the shores of the 
New World, were received by the people and Government of the United States in the 
most generous manner — yes, like brothers. With one hand they hurled anathemas at 
the despots, and with the other welcomed the humble exiles to partake of that glori- 
ous American liberty more to be valued than the glitter of crowns. Our hearts are 
filled with emotions to see how this great nation extends its sympathy and aid to every 



30 kOSSUTH. 

Hungarian who is so fortunate as to arrive in America. The sympathetic declaration 
- of such a people, under such circumstances, with similar sentiments in England, is not 
a mere sigh which the wind blows away, but is prophetic of the future. What a 
blessed sight to see whole nations actuated by such sentiments ! 

Free citizens of America ! you inspired my countrymen to noble deeds ; your ap- 
proval imparted confidence ; your sympathy consoled in adversity, gave a ray of hope 
for the future, and enabled us to bear the weight of our heavy burden ; your fellow- 
feeling will sustain us till we realize the hope, the faith, " that Hungary is not lost for- 
ever." Accept, in the name of my countrymen, the acknowledgments of our warm- 
est gratitude and our highest respect. 

I, who know Hungary so well, firmly believe she is not lost ; and the intelligent 
citizens of America have decided not only with impulsive kindness, but with reason 
and policy, to favor the unfortunate but riot subjugated Hungary. The sound of that 
encouraging voice is not like a funeral dirge, but as the shrill trumpet that will call 
the world to judgment. 

Who does not see that Austria, even in her victory, has given herself a mortal 
wound? Her weakness is betrayed. The world no longer believes that Europe 
needs the preservation of this decaying empire. It is evident that its existence is a 
curse to mankind; it can never promote the welfare of society. The magic of its im- 
agined power is gone ; it was a delusion which can deceive no longer. Among all the 
races of this empire — not excepting the hereditary States — there is none that does not 
despise the reigning family of Hapsburg. This power has no moral ground of sup- 
port ; its vain dreams of a united empire — for which it has committed the most un- 
heard-of crimes — are proved to be mere ravings at which the world laughs. No one 
loves or respects it ; and when it falls, not a tear of regret will follow it to the grave. 
And fall it surely will. The moment Russia withdraws her support, the decayed edi- 
fice will crumble to dust. A shot fired by an English or by an American vessel from 
the Adriatic would be like the trumpet at the City of Jericho. And this impious, fool- 
ish Government thinks to control fate by the hangman's cord. How long will Russia 
be able to assist ? This Czar — who boasts that his mission is to be the scourge of all the 
nations striving for liberty — will not the Almighty, whose vicegerent he profanely as- 
sumes to be, blast the miserable boaster .'' The very character of his Government is a 
declaration of war against the rights and interests of humanity, and the existence of 
other nations ? Will the world suffer this long ? Not long. 

The Hungarian nation, in her war, has not only gained a consciousness of her own 
strength, but she has forced the conviction into the minds of other nations that she 
deserves to exist, and to be independent ; and she can show justly that her existence 
and independence are essential to the cause of liberty in Europe. No, no ! Hungary is 
not lost ! By her faith, bravery, and by her foresight, which teaches her to abide her time, 
she will be yet among the foremost in the war of universal liberty ! 

You, noble Americans, we bless in the name of the God of Liberty ! To you, who 
have summoned the murderers of my countrymen before the judgment-seat of the 
world — to you, who are the first judges of this court — I will bring the complaints of 
my nation, and before you I will plead her cause. When the house of Hapsburg, with 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 31 

the aid of a foreign army, invaded my country, and had destroyed, by their manifesto 
of the 4th of March, 1849, the foundation upon which* the union with Austria rested, 
there remained for Hungary no alternative than the Declaration of Independence 
which the National Assembly unanimously voted on the 14th April, 1849, and which 
the whole nation solemnly accepted, and sealed with their blood. 

I declare to you, in the most solemn manner, that all which has taken place, or that 
may hereafter take place, proceeding from individuals or Government, contrary to this 
declaration, which is in perfect accord with the fundamental law of Hungary, is ille- 
gal and unjust. 

Before you I assert that the accusation that the Magyar race was unjust to the other 
races — by means of which a portion of the Servians, Wallachians, Slavonians and 
Germans dwelling in Hungary, was excited against us — is an impious slander, circu- 
lated by the house of Hapsburg, which shrinks from no crime to weaken the united 
forces of our army, to conquer one race after another, and thus bring them all under 
the yoke of slavery. 

It is true, some of the races in Hungary had reason to complain ; but these subjects 
of complaint were the inevitable consequences of the preexisting state of things and 
the Austrian interference. But the Croatians had no reason to complain. This race of 
half a million, in a separate province, had a National Assembly of its own, and en- 
joyed greater privileges than even the Hungarians. They contributed proportionally 
but half as much in taxes ; they possessed equal rights witb Hungary ; while the Hun- 
garian Protestants, on account of their religion, were not suffered to own lands in 
Croatia. Their grievances and ours were the same in the perpetual violation of the 
Constitution by the imperial Government. Bat their own peculiar grievances arose 
from the evils of former times, and from the Austrian system of government, which 
forcibly placed the Slavonian, Servian, and Wallachian boundary districts on the Ger- 
man military footing. 

The moment, however, our people became free, and enjoyed their political rights, 
they became just, and placed all things upon a basis of freedom and perfect equality. 
But some of these races, blinded by the infernal slanders and suggestions of Austria, 
took up arms against us. This people, who for centuries had endured slavery, fought 
against their own freedom ! God forgive them ! They knew not what they did. 

In America, people of different languages dwell ; but who says that it is unjust for 
senators and representatives to use the English language in their debates, and to make 
it the official language of the Government?, 

This was what the Magyar race asked in Hungary. There was this difference on- 
ly — that in America it was not necessary to establish this by law, for the original set- 
tlers had stamped their language in the country ; but in Hungary a law was necessary 
to make the Magyar the official language. The use of the Latin tongue — a bad relic 
of the middle ages, which the clergy and aristocracy preserved as something precious, 
imitating the ancient despots, who caused the laws to be written in small letters and 
placed on high towers, that the people might not understand their rights — had been 
retained among us. It was necessary to have a living, spoken, popular language. And 
what other could we have than the noble Magyar ? 



32 KOSSUTH. 

How often have I, and other leaders with me, said to my countrymen that they 
must be strictly just, and seek their future greatness not in the predominance of one 
race, but in the perfect equality of all ! My counsel was adopted and made the basis 
of the Government. The same freedom, the same privileges, without regard to lan- 
guage or religion, the free development of each race under the protection of the law, 
were accorded to all. We not only guaranteed the right to use any language in the 
churches and schools, but we afforded aid for the education and development of each 
nationality. The principle we announced was, that either the state should protect no 
religion, no nationality — leaving all to the free action of the people — or that it should 
protect all alike. 

In the general administration the predominance of our language, and consequently 
the race that spoke it, was a necessity ; but in the administration of county affairs, 
which in some respects resembled that of the individual states in North America, the 
use of each language was granted. In the courts, in the trial by jury, in the right of 
petition, in the republication of all laws and ordinances, the various races had the right 
to use their own language. In one word, nothing was left undone which could tend 
to place all on a footing of the most perfect equality. True, we did not — as Austria 
has done for political purposes solely, to enslave all the people and make the brave 
Hungarians a subordinate nation — make a territorial division of the lands. We re- 
spected rights, and wished to progress, but were too honest to commence a system of 
spoliation. And who has been benefited by this policy of the Vienna bureaucracy ? 
Not even those on whom the pretended favors have been conferred. 

When those races clamored for national rights, I boldly demanded what was want- 
ing, and what could be granted without injury to the country. No one answered but 
reckless men, who spoke of territorial division. The Servians desired to have the 
comitat Bacs and the three counties of the Banat as a separate Servian State. The 
Wallachians wished to have Transylvania. They (the Servians) did not consider that 
they owned no separate portion of the land in Hungary, and that in the Bacs, and the 
Banat were Wallachians, Germans, and Magyars, who could not be made subordinate 
to the less numerous Servians. So, also, in Transylvania there were Magyars, Seklers, 
and Saxons, who would complain of such a connection with Wallachia. 

As there were various races, speaking different languages in Hungary, and divided 
into as many municipalities, who could blame us for laying the foundation of govern- 
ment in a just equality to all ? Croatia alone was a separate territory ; and how often 
have we said to her that if she would remain in union with us, we would give her 
the hand of brotherhood ; but if she wished to separate, we would not hinder her ! 
We could not, however, permit such a division of Hungary as would have destroyed 
her as a nation. It was Austria who sowed the seeds of division and dissolution. 

Citizens of America ! to you I declare honestly that my aim in the federation of 
Hungary with smaller nations was to secure the nationality and independence of each, 
and the freedom of all ; and had anything been wanting which could have been justly 
granted to any or all of the races in Hungary, the Magyars had only to know it, and it 
would have been performed with readiness ; for freedom and not power was their de- 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 

Finally, I declare that, by the Declaration of Independence by which I was elected 
Governor of Hungary, I protest, so long as the people do not by their free will release 
me from that office, that no one can legally control the affairs of government but my- 
self. This protestation is not made in a feeling of vanity or desire to be conspicuous^ 
but fronti respect to the inherent rights of my countrymen. I strove not for power. 
The brilliancy of a crown would not seduce me. The final aim of my life, after hav- 
ing liberated my dear Hungary, was to end my days as a private citizen and an hum- 
ble farmer. 

My country, in the hour of danger, called upon me to assist in the struggle for free- 
dom. I responded to its call. Others, doubtless, were more able, who could have won 
more fame, but I will yield to none in the purity of my motives. Perhaps it was con- 
fidence in my ardent patriotism and honesty of purpose which induced the people to 
give me the power. They believed freedom would be safe in my hands. I felt my 
weakness, and told them I could not promise liberty unless they were united as one 
man, and would lay aside all personal, all sectional interests. I foretold that, if the 
nation was divided, it would fall. As long as they followed my injunctions, and were 
united, they were unconquerable — they performed miracles of valor. The fall of Hun-' 
gary commenced the day they began to divide. Not knowing the secret causes of this 
division, and not suspecting treachery, and wishing to inspire confidence, to give skill 
and all the elements of success to our army, and caring nothing for my own fame, 
doing all for the good of my country, I gave command of the forces to another. I 
was assured by the most solemn engagement, by the man to whom I gave the power^ 
that he would use it for the welfare and independence of the nation, and that he would 
be responsible to me and the people for the fulfillment of these conditions. He be- 
trayed his country, and gave the army to the enemy. Had we succeeded after this 
terrible blow, he should have met his reward. And even now he is not freed from 
his accountability to the nation, no more than I, in the moral right and sense, cease t6 
be the Governor of Hungary. A short time may reverse again the fate of all. The 
aurora of liberty breaks upon my vision, even at Broussa. 

I have, therefore, intrusted to Ladislas Ujhazi, Obergespann of the Saros comitat, and 
Civil Governor of Comorn, the mission to be my representative, and through me the 
representative of the Hungarian nation, to the people and Government of the United 
States, hoping and believing that so generous a people will not judge the merits of our 
cause by a temporary defeat, but will recognize Governor Ujhazi and his companions 
with the accustomed kindness. 

May God bless your country forever ! May it have the glorious destiny to share 
with other nations the blessings of that liberty which constitutes its own happiness 
and fame ! May your great example, noble Americans, be to other nations the source 
of social virtue ; your power be the terror of all tyrants — the protector of the dis- 
tressed ; and your free country ever continue to be the asylum for the oppressed of all 
nations. 

Written at my place of banishment, Broussa, Asia Minor, 27th March, 1850. 

LOUIS KOSSUTH, 

Governor of Hungary. 
3 



SPEECH AT THE BANQUET AT SOUTHAMPTON. 



M. Kossuth, accompanied by M. Pulszki, Lord Dudley Stuart, and several other 
gentlemen, arrived at Southampton from town by the two o'clock train on Tuesday, 
Oct. 27. M. Kossuth and party proceeded at once to the house of the American Con-, 
sul, and partook of a dejeuner; after which he proceeded to the town residence of 
the Mayor, to receive addresses. During his short stay at Mr. Croskey's, an oiFer 
was made on the part of the American Ocean Steam-Packet Company, of a free pas- 
sage to America, for M. Kossuth and family. About five o'clock the party proceeded 
Xf) the town residence of the Mayor, where an immense crowd awaited the arrival of 
1|he distinguished stranger. Deputations were there received from Sheffield, Durham, 
Sunderland, and one or two other places, to all of which M. Kossuth returned short 
■^erbal replies, and proceeded in the Mayor's carriage to the banqueting-room. So 
great was the crowd that filled the streets, that the Mayor and M. Kossuth were 
(jbliged to alight at some short distance from the hall, and make the rest of their way 
on foot, amid the most enthusiastic cheering from the people. 

^ After the toasts had been given, the chairman, in a fervent and much-cheered 
sjpeech, proposed, " Our illustrious guest, Louis Kossuth." (Great cheering, again 
^nd again.) , 

<M. Kossuth then addressed the company in nearly the following terms: "This 
is the second festive occasion on which I have had the honor to express my most 
sincere thanks to the Mayor and Corporation of Southampton for the generous wel- 
come with which they favor me, and to all the gentlemen for the sympathy with 
which they join <this demonstration. (Applause.) God has awarded two blessings 
to those whom he has elected — bliss in heaven and freedom on earth. (Cheers.) 
May you all, may your nation be blessed by both these blessings. No man, aware of 
the value of his destiny, can live satisfied without freedom ; but he to whom God has 
gf anted freedom, he has got all, if he has got the mind and the will to use his freedom 
^r the development of his happiness with so consistent an exertion as the English 
people do. This is the basis upon which England has grown a paradise on earth, on 
which the eye and the heart rest with joy, and which must strengthen the desire in 
Qvery foreigner to become likewise free, and by becoming such, to be endowed with 
tibe possibility of converting other parts of the world into a paradise such as England 
is. (Applause.) During all my life I had but one leading idea — liberty. It was the 
aim of my lif^ — the aim of my existence — to secure its blessings to my people, though 
I knew these blessings but instinctively. Now, that I behold England, I see how 



* 

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET AT SOUTHAMPTON. 35 

liberty ennobles men and beautifies nature. (Applause.) How should I, then, not 
be doubly determined — in spite of all danger, in spite of all difficulties — to endure, to 
act, to struggle, and, if it must be, to die, that my people should become free — ^my peo*. 
pie, of which I can say, with deeply felt satisfaction, that there is no people on earth 
that deserve better to be free ? But besides the bliss of liberty, gentlemen, there is 
also a glory allotted to you ; this is the proud position which the English hold, not 
only to bear good will to those who do not enjoy their happiness, but also to offer their 
hand to their less fortunate brethren. Gentlemen, this is a great glory, it raises the! 
dignity of men. Being in that position, you, in your national capacity, carry into life, 
even in your relations and feelings towards other countries, the divine doctrine of out 
Savior — ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' (Hear.) It is only thus that I 
can explain the grand phenomenon, that so many noble-minded men, different in rank 
and station, but united all in the love and enjoyment of freedom, that they all join in 
the expression of their sympathy for the principles of freedom of which they choose 
to consider me an humble representative. Yes, it is so ; I can explain that even those 
honorable classes, whose only capital is their honest labor and their time, they stop 
their work and sacrifice their time to express with that noble instinct of the people 
before which every individual grandeur bows, that the great principles of liberty can 
reckon on the sympathies of the people of England. And there is a reason why they 
can justly reckon on the sympathies of the working classes, for without liberty there 
can exist no lasting social order, so indispensable that everybody may enjoy in full 
security the fruits of his labor. Without liberty there is no field for productive labor^ 
such as benefits those who work. Without liberty there is no personal security, and 
no security for property. And if it is not the aim of society to open a field for pro- 
ductive labor, to grant security to the person and property, and by this to develop 
man's mind and to ennoble man's heart — if this be not the aim of human society, 
then I do not know what aim it can have. (Applause.) But it is also not without 
reason that all the classes of England are united in sympathy, in order that that 
liberty which, under different forms of government but similar institutions, is the bliss 
and the pride of the English race in both hemispheres, should likewise be allotted to 
other nations, to enjoy it under a government which best suits their wishes and theit 
wants. Not without reason is this sympathy, not only because there is a moral solid- 
arity in the destinies of the nations, but also because where the productive powers of a 
people bring forth more than they can consume — as in the case of England — such a 
country must have free intercourse and an uninterrupted interchange of communication 
with the world in order to secure the benefits of its labor, that by the stoppage of one 
channel there should not arise a plethora no less dangerous than consumption. Now, 
without the liberty of Europe there is no liberty of trade. All despots fear free trade, 
because the liberty of commerce is the great vehicle of political liberty. Free trade 
is only possible with free Europe. (Applause.) I hope I am not wrong in touching 
likewise on this material side of the question. I felt that it is fortunate as well as 
glorious when the material interests of a great nation are identical with the interest* 
of the freedom of the world. This is a providential law. Even a single community 
can but enjoy welfare and security when the interests of the whole are in harmonj' 



36 ■ KOSSUTH. 

with the interests of the individuals. (Applause.) Your sound judgment, gentlemen, 
and your comprehensive views make it unnecessary for me to develop all I could say 
about the connection of the material interests of England with the liberty of the 
Continent. Be it sufficient to express my vievi's in a few dry but truthful words. 
The principle of all evil on the Continent is the despotic and encroaching spirit of 
the Russian power. There is the pillar which supports every one who wishes to 
establish his ambitious sway on the sufferings of nations, raising himself on the ruins 
of their liberty. Russia is the rock which breaks every sigh of freedom, and this 
Russian power is the same which England encounters in her way, on every point — in 
Peking and in Herat, at the Bosphorus and on the Sound, on the Nile and on the 
Danube, and all over the Continent of Europe. (Hear, hear.) Jesuitism, which in 
latter times has again begun to raise its head, is employed in support of Russia. We 
are in the neighborhood of a great country which unfortunately does not enjoy the 
fruits of sorrowful times and great sufferfngs. The Jesuit party in France threaten 
that country with the Cossacks. Even here in this glorious country, a question con- 
nected with this not long ago was agitated, as well in public opinion as in Parliament. 
I know what is convenient to myself and due to you. I will not enter into that ques- 
tion. I will only state one curious coincidence — I am a Protestant (Applause.) I 
am a Protestant, not only by birth but by connection. I am an humble member 
of a nation, the majority of which is composed of Catholics, and it is not the 
least glory of my nation that in all times we fought and bled for religious liberty — 
Catholics as devotedly as Protestants. The rights and freedom of the Protes- 
tants were always strongly opposed by the house of Hapsburg. That house 
had always in history been closely united with the spirit of Jesuitism; but the 
freedom of Protestantism had been established by treaties gained by swords of 
victorious Hungary. Scarcely had Russia restored the house of Hapsburg by putting 
its foot on the neck of Hungary, when the first act of that house was to spill noble 
blood by the hands of the hangman, and its second was to destroy the rights of the 
Protestant religion in Hungary. The kings of Hungary in former times were alw^ays 
anxious not to allow any meddling of the court of Rome in the temporal affairs of 
the Catholic church, and a glorious king, Matthias Corvinus, a Hungarian by birth, 
once used these words to the Pope : ' Your holiness must remember that we bear two 
crosses on our ensign, and we will make our crosses pikes before we allow you to 
mix yourself up with the affairs of our church.' Since Russia had restored the house 
of Hapsburg for a brief time the Jesuits have obtained full power to act. The en- 
croaching spirit of Russia is that which every man in Europe relies on who wishes to 
do wrong. The identity of the interests of England^ with the interests of the liberty 
of Europe, gives me the hope that the generous sympathy which I have the honor to 
meet with, will not remain an empty sound, that it will not remain without practical 
results for my poor country — for humanity. (Cheers.) There is no party in England 
which can deny it, that the armed intervention of Russia in the affairs of Hungary 
has increased beyond measure the preponderance of Russia on the Continent, while at 
the same time it has violated the sacred principle of the independent right of nations 
to dispose of their domestic concerns. It can, therefore, hardly be denied that, as long 



SPEECH AT THE BANQUET AT SOUTHAMPTON. 37 

as Hungary is not restored to liberty and to independence, the weight of Russian pre- 
ponderance over Europe will not subside, but will increase. And what is it which I 
request in the name of my poor country and in the interest of the oppressed people of 
Europe, from the great, free and powerful English nation 1 Is it that England should 
take up arms for the restoration of Hungary ? Oh, no ! All I request, and all I hope, 
is only that England should not abandon the weight which in Europe is due to her; 
that England should not grant a charter to the Czar to dispose of the destinies of the 
world. Public opinion in England can establish it as a leading principle in acknowl- 
edging the fundamental right of every nation to dispose of itself, not to allow the 
Czar to interfere with the domestic affairs of the nations of Europe. People of 
mighty Albion ! this it is, and nothing more, which oppressed humanity expects, en- 
treats and hopes for. As to the rest, leave it to the nations of Europe themselves. 
(Cheers.) Austria — but no, I can't say Austria — I love, I esteem the people of Aus- 
tria as my own brethren ; I feel their griefs as keenly as those of my own people, and 
I have wishes and hopes for their future as fervent as for those of my own nation. I 
have the right to say so. My life is an open book — (cheers) — and the judgment on 
it will be pronounced by disinterested history, and neither by the hirelings of the 
house of Austria, nor by party spirit, nor by blind passion, as also not by those base, 
absurd calumnies, which in my position could not naturally fail to be launched against 
me, but still, which I regret, not for myself, because they cannot but enhance the af- 
fection of every generous man, it being so natural to feel revolted at such mean, base 
work ; but I regret them because it is no consolatory view to see our fellow-creatures 
£0 delight in such foul calumnies, which must offend the self-esteem of my people 
which chose me to be its chief. I am surprised to find these calumnies, even in 
places where I had not expected them. It may be that relying on the affection that 
jmy people has for me — and they are a moral people, that never can be said in any 
instance to have given their confidence and love to a man who is not an honest man — 
it may be that for this reason it is supposed I will not entreat the protection of the 
law of England. I will, however, consider the matter as soon as my duties to my 
fatherland leave me a single moment to myself. (Loud applause.) Still, as I said, it 
is history will pass a verdict on me, and so I have the right to say before God and 
mankind, that the people of Austria never had, nor have, a warmer friend than my- 
self. It is, therefore, not in regard to Austria, but to the house of Hapsburg, that I 
wish to say some few words ; and all I will say of it is, that its perjury, with which 
it has violated the rights of all its nations, has doomed it to destruction. There is a 
God in Heaven, and therefore there must be justice on earth. (Cheers.) The house 
of Austria, having forfeited even the possibility of the love of the nations it rules, has 
lost the basis for its existence. Bayonets alone are no basis, for the soldier belongs 
also to the people, and the soldier thinks likewise. The continued loans are no basis ; 
they lead rather to bankruptcy. What is it, then, upon which rests the house of 
Austria? It is on nothing else than its master the Czar, around whom the house of 
Austria moves as an obedient satellite. But while the Hapsburg dynasty can have 
no future, the people of Hungary has a future yet, because it deserves to live ; it has 
a future, because it has vitality ; it has a future because its independence is a necessity 



38 ' KOSSUTH. 

to the freedom of Europe. (Here M. Kossuth complained of suffering from pain in 
the chest, and apologized for the necessity of abridging his observations.) To me 
every occasion is valuable in w^hich I can by feeble words, and not by the povi^er of 
eloquence — for you see I designedly employ no eloquence, but only a simple state- 
ment of facts and the sound logic of a common understanding — discuss the matters of 
my poor native land ; and your generosity would enable me to do so still longer, but I 
suffer from a sick chest, and am not much capable of speaking without bad conse- 
quences, and therefore I beg leave to ask you to charge your glasses. (Applause.) It 
Is to the future of my country that I devote the activity which I have regained by my 
liberty from the bondage of Asia : and this my liberation is, in the first place, due to 
the noble feelings of the Sultan, who in spite of the arrogant threats of Russia and 
Austria, has protected my life, and the life of my companions — who later yielded, but 
with sorrow, to the pressure of the circumstances which had forced him to surround 
his hospitality by detention — and who at last, raising himself by the magnanimity of 
his inspirations and his respect for the rights of humanity above all threats, restored 
me to liberty in the most dignified manner. But, expressing my grateful acknowledg- 
ments to Turkey, I may also return my deeply felt thanks for the magnanimous 
interferences of the Governments of Great Britain and the United States of America 
in such a high and generous manner, supported by the public spirit of the people in 
both countries, and even sanctioned by the magnanimous resolution of Congress, in 
obtaining the liberation of myself and of my associates. It is, therefore, with the 
warmest feelings of a grateful heart, I propose the toast, ' England, the United States, 
and Turkey.' " 

The conclusion of the speech was hailed with loud applause, and the toast was duly 
lionoved. 



SPEECH BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. , 



On Wednesday morning, October 28th, Louis Kossuth made a public entry into the' 
city of London, for the purpose of receiving the address of the Corporation, voted ori- 
the 2d October. 

About a quarter to 1 o'clock, the carriage reached Guildhall, where, on alighting,'- 
M. Kossuth was received with tremendous cheering. 

The Clerk of the Court read the address, congratulating their illustrious visitor,' 
and offering him, in the name of the Corporation of the city of London, a hearty wel-* 
come. (Immense cheering.) ; 

The cheering which followed the reading of the address having subsided, the town- 
clerk formally presented it to M. Kossuth, who received it with several bows, and^ 
pressed it to his heart. 

The Lord Mayor very briefly introduced their illustrious guest, and begged for him- 
a very quiet and attentive hearing, in consequence of his laboring under severe cold. 

M. Kossuth, on presenting himself to the court, Avas immensely cheered, the whole 
court rising from their seats, with waving of hats and handkerchiefs He said : 

"My Lord, and Gentlemen of the Corporation of the city of London — the great > 
and glorious city of London, in Common Council assembled — I speak unto you at this- 
hour, overburdened with sentiments in respect to the honor which I was aware that; 
you intended to do me to-day. I have been overwhelmed by what I have seen in 
the streets of this great and glorious city ; thousands upon thousands moved by no- 
other motive than the love which they bore to the principles of liberty — (hear) ; and 
I am full of hope, my lord and gentlemen, in consequence of the spirit of England for' 
the oppressed and down-trodden nations of the world. If, after having seen this mani- 
festation, I may be allowed to express what I feel on behalf of that oppressed people,- 
the Hungarians — for I believe that the sympathy of the people of England will not- 
melt away in the breeze like the sigh of the gull — I hope that the kindness and the 
sympathy that you have manifested with regard to the down-trodden and oppressed 
portion of the world will continue to be manifested, and even stronger than ever. 
This is the proudest moment of my life, to have listened to that generous' 
address by which you have assured me that you have watched over the past- 
struggles, and that you have watched with the deepest interest, and for the- 
expression of whose wishes for our noble people in relation to the future, and in 
respect to the object for which those struggles were originated by the people of my 
native land. (Cheers.) I thank you, that you congratulate me on my emancipation: 



40 KOSSUTH. 

from captivity ; for the character of the present manifestation, I express my most 
sincere and fervent thanks in the name of my nation, as well as for my humble self. 
This manifestation is distinguished from all others that have been witnessed. , You 
will allow me to state what I consider to be the real meaning of this demonstration. 
(Hear.) I am full of sentiments, but I do not know how I shall succeed to find words 
for them. (Hear, hear.) Now, as to the true meaning of the present demonstration 
(that is, my opinion of it) , I cannot suppose that the Corporation of the city of Lon- 
don, lawfully represented by its municipal artery, could have intended to bestow this 
honor on a man, but on a principle. [Hear.] Every side of the present demonstra- 
tion is principle. [Hear.] The Corporation of the city of London is not an aggrega- 
tion, on the present occasion, of men, but representatives of a principle. Myself, also, 
and my countrymen who surround me, and who were faithful friends during the 
struggle for our common nation, are not to be considered as men on the present occa- 
sion, but as the representatives of a principle. This is the true nature of the case. 
I beg leave to consider, then, what is the position in which I stand, and who are 
those who bestow upon me the honor of this day. What is the object of this demon- 
stration ? London is the metropolis of England — nay, the metropolis of the world. 
[Cheers.] This is no compliment, my lord mayor and gentlemen. It is the most 
earnest and most sincere truth. [Cheers.] London is the metropolis of the world, 
because there is no place — -there is no city in the world with which it is not inti- 
mately connected. There is scarcely any place in the wide world where I could not 
meet with some interest with which London was connected and deeply interested. 
[Hear.] London is the heart of the world, and like that metropolis of the human 
constitution, cannot fail to partake deeply the feeling of the least impediment in its 
circulation at the remotest parts. [Cheers.] This being the case, there is no place — 
no other city on the earth which has so many motives, and such deep interest, in the 
concerns of foreign nations. So long as I haVe the honor to enjoy the support and 
protection of England, I certainly will not interfere with any of its internal concerns; 
but perhaps I may be excused, if I venture a few remarks. I venture a single re- 
mark — that it is of the first importance to London and to England, that attention be 
given to foreign matters ; and certainly this city has had the opportunity of identify- 
ing itself intimately with the cause of freedom. [Hear, hear.] It is in consequence 
of this that you have bestowed your attention on the struggles of Hungary. You 
found it to be the cause of religion and righteousness, and that for which we were 
struggling to be in harmony with those mighty interests which are embodied in this 
great corporation. You have expressed your sympathy with us in the past and your 
wishes for the future. Then give oppressed humanity your helping hand, [Cheers.] 
You can help — do so. [Loud cheers] I cannot forbear, having spoken some words 
on the importance of foreign affairs, and especially in respect to the city of London, 
stating, that I believe the time draws near when, for the whole world, in the manage- 
ment of diplomacy, a radical change must take place. The basis of diplomacy has 
been secrecy ; and there is the triumph of absolutism and the misfortune of a free 
people. I hope soon this will cease, and foreign affairs will be conducted by that 
power which must be the ruling one in a constitutional government — public opinion. 



SPEECH BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 41 

[Hear, hear.] 1 scarcely can see how it is possible that this principle of the secrecy 
of diplomacy got ground, not in England only, but throughout the whole world, when 
a question of a single penny of the national property could not be disposed of with- 
out the consent of the people. [Hear, hear.] How are the interests of the country 
guarded and carried out in respect of these foreign aifairs .' There is a secrecy which 
would be dangerous to the interests of the country and to constitutional liberty to 
develop. Not only that the people should not know how its interests are treated, but 
even after the time has passed, they should be told, ' The dinner has been prepared 
and eaten, and the people have nothing to do but to digest the consequences.' [Hear, 
hear, and laughter.] What is the principle of all evil in Europe ? The encroach- 
ing spirit of Russia. [Hear, hear.] And by what power has Russia become so 
mighty ? By its arms ? No ; the arms of Russia are below those of many powers. 
It has become almost omnipotent, at least very dangerous to liberty, by diplomatic 
intrigues. Now, against the secret intrigues of diplomacy there is no surer safeguard, 
or more powerful counteraction, than public opinion. [Hear, hear.] This must be 
opposed to intrigues, and intrigues are then of no weight in the destinies of humanity. 
[C?ieers.] You will excuse me, my lord and gentlemen, for these hints— [hear, 
hear ;] I hope the English people will feel the truth of these humble remarks, and 
that they will not be quite forgotten. [Hear, hear.] Besides London being the me- 
tropolis of the world, I know London to be the seat of the Constitutional Government, 
and of the Parliament. Here, again, I meet a principle. I believe that London, being 
the seat of the Constitutional Government, and the free Legislature of Great Britain 
and Ireland, is more strongly than whatever other place in the world identified with 
the principles of free legislation, emancipating the whole world from arbitrary power; 
no place in the world can be so much interested in freedom as London. As in one 
family, as in one community, as in one country, things and affairs cannot be ruled in 
two different divergent directions— that is the destiny of mankind— so, ere long, one 
of the two ruling principles of the world must prevail, and one only : liberty and ab- 
solutism cannot much longer subsist together in the present state of development of 
the human mind and heart ; it cannot remain so— one or other must vanish from the 
earth, and unity be brought to the destinies of the world. [Hear, hear.] Now, this 
principle of freedom can be established in different countries, and different Govern- 
ments, according to the wants and wishes of different peoples and different nations ; 
but the principle which can be the only basis of the moral dignity and the material 
welfare— of the contentment and happiness of the world— is under different forms of 
government, only the principle of freedom. That principle you have in the United 
States, and in this country. [Hear, hear.] Now, permit me, my lord and gentlemen, 
to draw one consequence out of this principle. London, the metropolis of the world, 
the seat of free legislation— with which principle will it side ? With Absolutism, or 
with Freedom? (Hear, hear.) You gave your sympathy, you watched with liveli- 
est interest the cause of Hungary in the past ; if you thought it worthy to feel a 
lively interest in the cause of Hungary in the past, you gave your wishes for its 
future ; now, let me again ask, do not permit this lively interest, and these wishes, to 
be a barren sound. You have the power to help : help ! (Cheers.) A principle which 



42 KOSSUTH. 

T meet here in this place is a principle of social order. Many people, when they 
hear this word, ' social order,' get almost nervous and excited. There are many that 
misuse this sacred word as a hlasphemy. They call social order absolutism ; they 
call it social order when humanity i^ put into a prison ; they call social order the silence 
of the grave. (Hear, hear.) This 30th of October has presented to the world a spec- 
tacle which, once seen, I proudly proclaim that no Czars and Emperors of Austria 
have the right, or can have the pretension, to speak more of social order. (Hear, 
hear.) Here is social order in London ; and by whom watched ? I had my thousands 
and thousands of the people rushing forward, not with effusion of blood, but with the 
warm enthusiasm of noble hearts — (cheers), to cheer liberty, and the principle of 
freedom in my poor humble self. And what is the safeguard of social order in this 
meeting of people? I asked the attention of Lord D. Stuart : ' Let us look how many 
policemen are present. I have seen four.' (Cheers.) Such a scene, my lord, for the 
Czars and the Emperors, and all men ambitious, who may be called Presidents — for 
they are all the same thing, no matter how culled! (Hear, hear.) They would 
have had their 20,000 bayonets, and I do not know how many open and secret spies ; 
they would have safeguarded, by arms and cannon — what ? Social order ? No. Against 
whom? Against foes and enemies of social order? No: against their own people. 
(Hear, hear.) The people are never averse to social order; it is the basis of security 
of person and property. It is blasphemy to say that people love disorder; but neither 
a single man, nor thousands, wish to be the tools of ambition. (Hear, hear.) Now, 
having met here the principle of social order, permit me the question — What is, in 
the opinion of this illustrious corporation, the surest safeguard of social order? I be- 
lieve the surest safeguard of it is that which this illustrious corporation have seen, 
have experienced to be successful in maintaining social order here in this mighty, im- 
mense city, which is an empire : mightier than an empire or a nation. And what is 
the safeguard of social order ? Liberty. (Hear.) I was not so happy as to arrive 
in London soon enough to see that great meeting which London appointed to hu- 
manity — the Great Exhibition ; but London is the greatest exhibition of all ; and, 
should I need yet one spur to devote all my life and all my activity to that liberty 
which is capable to preserve, in so magnificent a manner, social order, in such an im- 
mense city as London, the contemplation of your social order, of your liberty, your 
demonstration to-day, would have given me the spur. I thank you for it. (Cheers.) 
You have marked, my lord and gentlemen, that we in Hungary have struggled for 
that very freedom which experience here in England has shown to be the surest safe- 
guard of social order ; therefore you gave your sympathy to our past — you give your 
sympathy to the present — you entertain wishes for the future of that cause ; let me 
again entreat you,. in the name of the principle of social order, let not be barren this 
sympathy for Hungary — you have the power — help ! help ! (Hear, hear.) A prin- 
ciple I meet is the principle of municipal institutions. London is almost the oldest, to 
he sure, one of the oldest municipal institutions on the earth ; in every case, it is( 
older than the great glorious nation of England itself, because it derives its municipal 
institutions from the Roman times. Nations, empires have fallen; mighty people 
have vanished from the surface of the earth ; a new world arose ; even here in En- 



SPEECH BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON, 43 

gland, dynasties passed ; religion, governments changed ; a revolution swept over 
England as a mighty storm ; a restoration came, which never in history lasts long; 
and, after that had passed, the establishment of social order upon the principle of lib- 
erty for the people ; and during all these immense changes, London stands ! Stands ? — - 
no, it does not stand ; it has grown during those changes, a giant : itself an empire — 
more than an empire ; itself a nation — mightier than a nation. (Hear, hear.) Now, 
what is the keystone of all this ? The keystone is. in my opinion, that the existence 
of London is founded upon municipal institutions. (Hear, hear.) The principle of 
municipal institutions is crushed down on the continent of Europe everywhere ; it is 
swept away by the disease of centralization. [Great cheering.] This centralization 
is so propitious, to what ? To ambition, but not to liberty. [Hear, hear.] But 
chiefly on the continent of Europe the principle of municipal institutions 
is swept away by the principle of absolutism — by the propensity to centrali- 
zation and absolutism, for the two words are identical. What is absolutism ? 
It is the centralization of power. That is the banner to the perjury of the 
house of Austria, and which banner it has obtained in so sacrilegious a manner 
through Hungary. That is the basis of Russia having assisted it. As long as Hungary 
was free, though continually encroached upon by the absolutist direction of the Aus- 
trian Government, still it continued to be for the existence of the house of Austria, an 
immense benefit, because the very idea that Hungary has had municipal institutions 
was a check to Russia, that it could not get the Austrian d}Tiasty into its hands. Hun- 
gary fallen, the power of Austria centralized, and Austria is no more than a mere tool 
of Russia. See the consequence of the crushing down of municipal institutions and 
centralization. The house of Austria became a traitor to God, a traitor to humanity, 
only out of the wish to get rid of the check which the municipal institutions of Hun- 
gary had put before its absolutist direction. (Hear, hear.) What is the consequence 
of centralization ? That Austria is in bondage, forced to be obedient to the czar. (Hear, 
hear.) You, the metropolis of the world, strong in your municipal institutions, re- 
membering to be attentive to the condition of foreign nations, have given your atten- 
tion to the cause of Hungary. You have marked us struggling for freedom and muni- 
cipal institutions ; finding this in the struggle of Hungary, you have given your sympa- 
thy to our past, your wishes for our future : then excuse me again for repeating the re- 
quest that these wishes be not barren ; you have the power to help — then help ! 
(Hear, hear.) For the cause of Hungary I could go on for weeks to show how much 
united, or at least in harmony, it is with those principles which you cherish and love, 
and which make your glory. (Hear, hear.) The next principle which I meet here is 
that of industry and trade. Nothing in the world can be in closer connection with free- 
dom than the development of industry and trade. Absolutism has in its train, and must 
have in its train, everything contrary to liberty ; therefore it must always be opposed 
to the free intercourse of nations. It must be opposite even to the moderate protec- 
tion of home industry, which some, in other parts of the world, consider to be a mere 
question of political economy. Absolutism is prohibitory ; it must be so, because it 
fears free trade and free commerce from political motives, because free trade and free 
commerce are founded upon the development of freedom, and are the most powerful 



44 KOSSUTH. 

levers of political rights. Now, let me ask, what is the market which Austria gave 
to the industry of England ? No market at all. Hungary, even before our past strug- 
gles, has consumed cotton manufactures — not home fabrication, foreign fabrication — 
Austrian fabrication — at an average from 67,000,000f. to 70,000,000f. a-year — about 
^2,600,000. How much place occupied in this important consumption the industry of 
England ? Not 5s. (Hear, hear.) And why not ? Because the principle of absolu- 
tism of Austria, of course in strong harmony with the prohibitory principle, managed 
matters so as to oblige Hungary to buy these manufactured articles, not there, where 
she could get them for the cheapest price and in the best manner, but in Austria, in 
order to drain millions out of Hungary for the benefit of Austria — an absolutist power; 
for Hungary was obliged to pay for cotton manfactures. which here in England can 
be bought for £8 or X9, £20 or £22, because of the importation taxes. Therefore, in 
this great market, England almost, if not quite, in an open loyal manner, has not par- 
taken 5s., not to speak of smuggling. What is the market of Russia for English ma- 
nufactures ? If not by smuggling, very small, very insignificant. Here you see the 
direction of absolutism. Now see the direction of freedom, of liberty, which I have 
the honor to represent for my country. The very day when Hungary proclaimed its 
independence, and intrusted me to be the Chief, the Governor of my ill-fated country, 
my first deed was to send instructions to my representatives in England to make known 
to the English Government that the barriers of Hungary had fallen, and that Hungary 
was open to the industry of England. [Bear, hear.] It is not my fault that very lit- 
tle profit was made out of it. [Hear.] I have proved the direction of freedom in re- 
spect to industry and trade. [Hear, hear.] Now, my lord and gentlemen, only to 
think for a single moment that as the Russian principle triumphs over the continent, 
and it is said the czar has put his foot upon Hungary's neck, and this step was only a 
degree to that immense preponderance it has on the continent — only think for a single 
moment, as the Russian and Austrian principle of absolutism triumphs- on the conti- 
nent, what must be the consequence for the industry and trade of England? A new 
continent like that of Bonaparte, on absolutist, because prohibitory principles. It will 
stop, it must stop, as through the liberty of English commerce the triumph ot absolut- 
ism would meet again and again a principle, the shock of which absolutism cannot 
stand. Only think of such a triumph of absolutism, of such a stoppage on the conlinent 
to the trade and industry of England. Look at the terrible consequences of such a tri- 
umph of absolutist principles, to stop the trade of England, only for a short period. 
You would have to go to war against the world — you must. You must send your fleets, 
as your forefathers did,, to protect the interests of England. You would spend millions, 
and torrents of blood, to get freedom for the trade, for the industry of England ; or else 
England, or else London — now the fairest spot on earth, now the place where only 
exists social order, not by terrorism, but by liberty — this glorious place would inevita- 
bly decline. [Hear, hear.] But you have not to spend money, blood, to insure this 
harmony— this connection of the welfare of the world with the industry of England ; 
there is an open, an immense market for the industry of England at your very doors, 
with Europe free. We have struggled in Hungary for that freedom — for the principle 
connected with freedom, of free trade, and the free intercourse of nations. Hungary, 



SPEECH BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 45 

restored to its independence and its liberty, is equal to proclaiming to the world that 
the principle of absolutism is crushed on the continent ; and, were this principle crush- 
ed, there is no impediment any more to the free intercourse of nations. You have 
seen us struggling for that principle; you have given your sympathy for the past, 
your wishes for the future ; let me repeat, let them not remain barren. (Hear, hear.) 
Perhaps I tire you. (No, no !) The sixth principle which I meet here in this place 
is the financial. My lord and gentlemen, London is the regulator of the public credit 
and of the money market of the world. These few words spoken to you suffice to 
state the immense importance of this principle. Well, if London is the regulator of 
the public credit of the world, and if a very considerable quantity of the loan shares of 
every government in the world are concentrated here in London, let me ask where is 
the security of those loans ? Where is the possibility to see paid the money under the 
governments of the world ? (Hear, hear.) Is the security in the victory of absolutist 
principle, or is it in the victory of the principle of freedom ? (Hear, hear.) Take de- 
spotic governments ; what is their basis of existence 1 Is it the love of the nations ? 
Oh, how could the principle of despotism be love ? Love in such case is a contradic- 
tion to our nature. (Hear, hear.) Is perhaps the basis of the absolutist Governments 
contentment of the nations ? How can men be contented without freedom ? (Hear, 
hear.) What is the connection of the principle of absolutism ? It can be marked out 
in a few plain words — " People, pay, because I want soldiers and spies, and to be your 
illimitable master." How could the principle of these nations be contentment ? (Hear.) 
Therefore, what is the basis of their existence ? Immense costly armies, and not less 
costly diplomatic intrigues. [Hear.j The sweat of the people cannot suffice to pro- 
vide for all these necessities, not for the welfare, not for the happiness of the nations, 
but to keep them in servitude. Therefore, the absolutist Governments must come 
again and again to the money-markets to get some loans. Every new loan, in what- 
ever unproductive manner applied, diminishes the resources out of which it should be 
paid ; and when the same goes on again and again, who could take the guarantee upon 
himself for the nations of ihe world with these eternal loans, employed, not for their 
benefit, but against their benefit, and against their liberty ? — who could take the gua- 
rantee upon him that at last these nations groaning under their material sufferings, will 
not say, " Let him pay who has made the debt; we made it not.'" Here is the pros- 
pect which absolutist principles point out in that respect. But there is a prospect es- 
pecially to the house of Austria. That prospect is inevitable bankruptcy. You know 
how it is where a government has often need to make loans, and where it is in neces- 
sity to make, for instance, now a new loan of £8,000, 0(J0, for the purpose of restoring 
the balance of the financial system in Austria. Oh, no ; only to get through three or 
four months, and then to get a new loan ; the interest of these new loans has to be add- 
ed to the expenditure of the Government. Men without any enthusiasm, earnestly 
pondering this state of the house of Austria, must confess that the very early prospect, 
unless averted by restored liberty, is bankruptcy. [Hear, hear.] Now, I will beg 
leave to state to you, in a very few words, what prospect is presented to the financial 
principle by the freedom and liberty of the world. Since I lelt Kutaya, I had occa- 
sion to stop for a short time in different parts of Europe, on the shores of Italy, in 



^6 KOSSUTH. 

France, in Lisbon. I had the honor to meet the free offerings of a most noble sympa- 
thy, the most cheering welcome everywhere. Why? Because I am taken for the 
humble representative of the principle of freedom. And why am I so taken ? Is it 
perhaps to make a compliment to this my miserable frame, broken by labor and anxi- 
eties ? No ; I am taken as the representative of the principle of freedom for my past. 
And what is my past ? My past is, that I have undertaken to give political and social 
freedom to the whole people ; to make free their soil, free their labor, free their trade, 
but at the same time to spare, and not to hurt but to protect every existing material 
interest of every class. [Hear, hear.] Here you have, my lord and gentlemen, the 
key of that confidence and of that love which my people bore, and bear still, to me. 
{Hear, hear.] Here is the key to the unity of Hungary in the principle which I have 
the honor to represent — freedom to all, but no injury to the material interests of any. 
Therefore, I met sympathy everywhere, because I have imparted this direction to the 
struggles of Hungary ; I got, not only the confidence of my people, but the sympathy 
of the world. [Hear, hear.] I pledged my honor and my word to be faithful to this 
direction all my life ; and, so may God bless me, as I will, if only those whose material 
interests I undertook to protect and to spare, will not deprive me themselves of the 
possibility to do so. ■ [Cheers.] Now, when the nations of Europe see that whenever 
a despot wants means to oppress humanity, he finds ever and again money, what must 
be the consequence ? (Hear.) I am no capitalist — [a laugh] ; I never was, and never 
shall be ; I am a poor man, and content with my station ; but, were I a capitalist, I 
would very much consider these circumstances — I would very much consider if there 
is possibility to the lasting triumph to absolutism, or if freedom must not have a fu- 
ture ■? and, considering these circumstances, I would rather give confidence to that prin- 
ciple which is pointed out to be the destiny of mankind by God himself I would bend 
with my sympathy toward that class which, by that sentiment, to spare every material 
interest, will of course, seeing the rapprocJiement of the material interests of the world 
to the principle of freedom, give full security to it to pay the debts the governments 
have made. But, when the nations of the world see that the money of the world is 
lent to oppressors, and identified again and again with the principle of absolutism, I 
do not know what the consequence will be. [Hear.] I believe with these few words 
I have proved that the principle of security to financial interests is not in absolutism, 
but in the victory of the principle of liberty in Europe. [Hear.] This you have 
seen in Hungary, having bestowed your attention to our struggles. You have seen 
Hungary strugghng under me for liberty — struggles not to injure any one — to have the 
blessing of all, but not the curse of a single man. You have given your interest to 
our past, your wishes for our future ; let me again entreat you, let not the sentiment of 
London. pass as a barren sound; you have the power — help! [Hear, hear.] The 
seventh principle which I meet is the consolidated peace of Europe. Such a city as 
London, with such immense industry and trade, wants the consolidated peace of Eu- 
rope. Now, I think you will see the peace of the world is only possible when the 
nations of the world will be content. The contentment of the nations is such a tree 
as only in the garden of liberty grows. [Hear, hear.] So long as the nations of Eu- 
rope shall not be free, so long there cannot be peace in Europe, because that would no 



SPEECH BEFORE THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 47 

be peace, but a prison, and this fair world was not created by God to be a prison to 
humanity — [hear, hear,J neither is it created for the jailer's sake. [Cheers.] It is 
not long ago that a great association — the Peace Society — had a meeting here in Lon- 
don ; humanity greets the existence of that society with hope. We will have peace, 
but a lasting and true peace, and not oppression, slavery. Now this association has 
proclaimed the principle of non-intervention. Could there be found a single man in 
the world to give such an interpretation to this principle of non-interference, that 
whatever the Czar of Russia, or his satellite, Hapsburg, should do with mankind and 
humanity, England would not care for it ? This is not non-interference ; this is a let- 
ter of marque given to the Czar to become the master of the world. [Hear, hear.] The 
principle of non-interferenCe proclaimed even by the Peace Association has this mean- 
ing : Every nation is free to dispose of its domestic concerns according as it is will- 
ing, and England should not interfere, and no foreign power should dare to interfere 
with this sovereign right of the nation. Oppressed humanity expects England to execute 
and safeguard this divine principle. Oppressed humanity expects, in the name of all 
those mighty principles, I have had the honor to mention, London to take a lead in the 
direction of public opinion. [Hear, hear.] And so, my lord and gentlemen, could I 
go on in the enumeration of the principles which I meet here, were I not even so ex- 
hausted as you are tired. Still, one more permit me to mention ; it is the principle 
of generous humanity. England is the only spot of Europe which is an asylum to 
those who are oppressed ; London ever generously partakes in that glory of England, 
and you, my lord, and the Corporation of the City of London, even now gloriously 
represented the allotting to the generous undertaking of the noble lord — (Lord D. 
Stuart,) whom I long ago already am accustomed to call the father of the unfortunate 
— [hear,] allotting to his undertaking in behalf of homeless exiles these noble apart- 
ments, these glorious halls. [Hear.] Permit me to express for this token of your 
generous sympathy my warmest thanks. May the freedom of the world soon release 
you from those cares! [Hear, hear.] I hope it soon will. [Hear.] But in the 
mean time, I wish may never an Englishman be found adding the thorn of humiliation 
to the bitterness of the bread of the poor unfortunate exile. [Hear, hear.] My lord 
and gentlemen, in stating the principles of the place where I have the honor to stand, 
I stated at the same time the principles which you represent. I see spreading before 
my eyes the immense history of the municipality of London — the most glorious, the 
most instructive topic to men like me. [Hear, hear.] But this you know, being the 
inheritors of this glory and of this history. So I will only state to you, my Lord 
Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the City of London, in common council assembled, 
being the lawful representation of the City of London, are altogether the incorpora- 
tion, the lawful incorporation of all those principles which I had the honor to enu- 
merate. Such are you, before whom I, in my humble quality, represent that noble cause 
of Hungary, the past struggles of which you honored by your sympathy, and for the 
future of which you express your generous wishes. I have often repeated, during my 
tiresome speech, the humble request — let your sympathies and your wishes not re- 
main barren. [Hear.] Now, again, I repeat it the more, because this practical sanc- 
tion which I wish to see imparted to the noble sentiments of the people of England 



48 KOSSUTH. 

is in the most intimate connection with the principle of freedom, the principle of 
lasting social order, the principle of municipal institutions, with the principle of in- 
dustry and trade, with the principle of public credit, with the principle of the possi- 
bility of the peace of the world, and with the principle of humanity. As to the 
practical result to which oppressed humanity, and especially my poor country, looks 
forward with manly resolution, with unshaken courage, and with hope, I will but re- 
peat that which I elsewhere already have said. When I declare : " Let not remain 
barren your sympathy ; help us to carry that noble cause to a happy issue ; you have 
the power, so help," — when I spoke that, I intended not to ask England to take up arms 
for the restoration of Hungary to its independence and liberties. No, gentlemen, that 
is the affair of Hungary itself; we will provide for our own freedom. [Hear, hear.] 
All I wish is, that the public opinion of England may establish it to be a ruling princi- 
ple of the politics of Europe to acknowledge the right of every nation to dispose of 
its own internal concerns, and not to give a charter to the Czar to dispose of the fate 
of nations — [cheers.] and so not to allow the interference of Russia in the domestic 
concerns either of Hungary, or of whatever other nations on the continent — [hear, 
hear,] because the principles of freedom are m harmony, and I love — I am interested 
in — the freedom of all other countries as well as of my own. [Hear, hear.] My lord 
and gentlem'in, these are the words which I again and again will repeat here in Eng- 
land, and there in the United States, from a most honored member of which I have 
had the honor to hear principles, which, once quite carried into effect, would and will 
give liberty to the world. I have heard it proclaimed from an honored citizen of the 
United States, the honored object of the sympathy and confidence of a great part of 
his countrymen, even a candidate to become the Chief Magistrate of the United 
States — I have heard him. in answer to my appeal, declare that he believes the younger 
brother of the English race very heartily will give his hand to England to protect op- 
pressed nations, not admitting interference with their domestic affairs. [Hear, hear.] 
Gentlemen, I will again and again repeat to you these words ; I v/ill repeat them with 
the faith of those martyrs of old, which has moved the hills and the mountains: I 
will concentrate all the fire of my sentiments, all the blood of my heart, all the energy 
of my mind, to raise these words high and loud, deep and solemn, till the almighty 
echo of the public opinion in repeating it becomes like the thundering trumpet, before 
the sound of which the "Jericho" of human oppression falls; and should this feeble 
frame succumb sooner— should it succumb to the longing of my heart to see my father- 
land independent and free, which longing beats everlasting in my feeble frame, as the 
captive lion beats his iron cage— even the grass which will grow out of my grave will 
cry out to heaven and to man, '-England and America, do not forget in your proud se- 
curity those who are oppressed. Do not grant a charter to the Czar to dispose of hu- 
manity. Do not grant a charter to tlie despots to drown liberty in Europe's blood. 
[Cheers.] Save the myriads who else wou;d, and will bleed; and, by not granting 
this charter, be the liberators of the world !" [M. Kossuth then resumed his seat 
amid loud and continued cheering.] 



SPEECH AT THE DEMONSTRATION OF WORRINGMEN. 



On Monday, the Working Classes of London formed a procession and waited upon 
Kossuth according to appointment. In front of Copenhagen House, a scaffolding had 
been erected from which he addressed them. The number present is estimated by Th$ 
Times at 24,000. As Kossuth made his appearance, he was greeted with enthusiastic 
applause. The address of the Working Classes was then read by Mr. Pettik. The 
writer of the address wished it to be placed on record, that had the wishes of the work- 
ing classes received governmental aid, "the intervention of Russia would not have 
been met alone by protests upon paper, but upon the field of action by the force of 
British arms." The entire merit of Kossuth's release was also given to the United 
States. 

Kossuth's speech in" eeply. 

M. Kossuth, having received the address, which was inscribed on vellum, pressed 
it to his breast, and then made the following reply: 

" Gentlemen — I most warmly thank you for your generous sentiments of active and 
operative sympathy with the freedom and independence of my native land, so closely 
connected — as you have rightly judged-»-with the freedom and independence of other 
nations on the European continent. [Cheers.] It is to me highly gratifying to knov? 
that a large part of the present meeting belongs to the working classes. [Cheers.] 
It is gratifying to me, because, if to belong to the working classes implies a man whose 
livelihood depends on his own honest and industrious labor, then none amorg you has 
more right to call himself a working man than I so to call myself. I inherited no- 
thing from my dear father, and I have lived my whole life by my own honest and in- 
dustrious labor. [Cheers.] This my condition I consider to have been my first claim 
to my people's confidence, because well they knew, that being in that condition, I 
must intimately know the wants, the sufferings and the necessities of the people. 
And so assuredly it was. It is, therefore, that I so practically devoted my life to pro- 
cure and to secure political and social freedom to my people, not to a race, not to a 
class, but to the whole people ; besides, I devoted all my life for many years to the 
practical means of associations, to extend the benefit of public instruction to the work- 
ing classes, and to forward the material welfare of the agriculturalists, of the manufac- 
turers, and of the trading men. [Cheers.] Among all the enterprises to that effect 
of that time of my life, when I was yet in no public office, but a private man, there 13 
none to which I look back with more satisfaction and pride than to the association for 
4 



50 KOSSUTH. 

the encouragement of manufacturing industry — to its free schools, to its exhibitions, 
to its press and to its affiliations. Besides conferring immense material benefits, it 
proved also politically beneficial by bringing in closer contact and more friendly rela- 
tions the different classes of my dear native land, by interesting the w^orking classes 
in the public political concerns of our nation, and by so developing a strongly united 
public opinion to support me in my chief aim, which was, conserving the municipal and 
constitutional institutions of my country — to substitute for the privileges of single 
classes the political emancipation of the whole people, and substituting freedom to class 
privileges — to impart to the people the faculty of making the constitution a common 
benefit to all — for all — in a word, to transform the closed hall of class-privileges into 
an open temple of the people's liberty. [Loud cheers.] This being my early connec- 
tion with the working classes, I had at Southampton already occasion to say, that 
among all the generous testimonials of English sympathy which honor me and my 
nation's past struggles, which console our present sufferings, and assure our future, there 
is none dearer to my heart than when I see that those classes, whose only capital is 
their honest labor and their time, stop in their work and sacrifice that valuable time 
for the purpose, openly and resolutely, of expressing that the great principles of free- 
dom can reckon upon the sympathies, the cooperation, and the support of the people 
of England. [Cheers.] In the streets of London, a few days ago, and here on the 
present occasion, this great phenomenon presents itself on a still larger scale, in a 
still higher degree ; the more it is therefore gratifying to me, and consoling to my coun- 
try, the more have I the pleasurable duty to acknowledge the high value of it, and to 
thank you the more fervently for it. I said at Southampton that in these demonstra- 
tions of the operative classes I recognize that natural instinct of the people, before 
which every individual^ greatness must bow down with respect. [Cheers.] The 
same acknowledgment I have to make on this occasion, only on a larger scale, and in 
a higher degree. Allow me, first, to congratulete you on the attention which you have 
hereby proved that you devote to public matters, to the glory as well as to the inter- 
ests of your country, and to the freedom and interests of humanity. May this public 
spirit never decrease ! May every Englishman forever feel that it is the basis of all 
constitutional organization, be it under a republican or a monarchical form ; that it is 
the public opinion of the people which must give direction to the policy of the coun- 
try, and that it is, therefore, not only the right, but also the duty, of every honest citi- 
zen to contribute to the development and expression of that public opinion, of which 
the legislative as well as the executive authorities are, and must be, faithful represen- 
tatives. Allow me, secondly, to congratulate you on the just and happy instinct with 
which, bestowing your attention on public concerns, you have seized the very point 
which really is the most important among all in which the mind and heart of English- 
men can be interested. That point is the freedom of the European Continent. I said 
it in the Common Council of the city of London, I repeat it here ; there is none among 
your internal questions which outweighs in importance the external. [Cheers.] And 
how may be summed up the external interest of the British Empire on the European 
Continent ? It is to be summed up in this question : By which principle shall the 
Continent of Europe be ruled — ^by the principle of freedom or by the principle of 



SPEECH AT THE DEMONSTRATION OF WORKINGMEN. 51 

absolutism ? Can England, or can it not, remain indifferent to the approaching strug- 
gle and final decision of this question ? and, if it cannot remain indifferent without 
losing its position in the world, endangering its own freedom, and hurting its own in- 
terests, with which principle shall England side — with the principle of freedom or the 
principle of aggression 1 Shall it support the rights, freedom and happiness of nations, 
or the oppressive combinations of arbitrary Governments ? [Cheers.] That is the 
question — a question the more urgent and the more important that {i.e. because) no 
man of whatsoever party can dissimulate, still less deny, that the situation of France, 
of Italy, of Germany, of Austria, of Hungary, of Poland, and of Russia, is so unnatu- 
ral, so contrary to the human and national interests of the respective people, that 
it is utterly impossible it can endure. _ Yes, no man can dissimulate the convic- 
tion that France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Hungary, are already on the eve of 
those days when the great, and I hope the final battle of these adverse principles will 
be fought out. [Loud cheers.] Now, the people of Great Britain, by its loudly pro- 
claimed sympathy with the cause of freedom and independence of Hungary, has pro- 
nounced itself willing not to remain indifferent, and to side not with absolutism, but 
with liberty, by supporting and protecting against all interference of foreign Gov- 
ernments the sovereign right of every nation to dispose of itself. You your- 
selves have pronounced by this demonstration and by your generous address in fa- 
vor of this principle j so, thanking you most fervently for it, I beg leave to congratu- 
late you on the sound judgment and on the comprehensive views you give and that 
you entertain on the duties of England toward Europe, and on the proper interests of 
England itself. You have rightfully considered that the freedom of England, and 
that happy condition which you feel assured that your institutions, your freedom 
and your public spirit, will go on peacefully developing — morally, materially and 
politically — that all this is intimately connected with the victory of the principle of 
freedom on the European Continent. • In a word, you have pronounced for that truth 
I since in England, on no occasion have omitted to express, viz. : that there is a com- 
munity in the principle of freedom and there is an identity in the destinies of humani- 
ty. [Loud cheers.] Besides, you have duly considered that the material welfare of 
Great Britain is also in the highest degree dependent on, and connected with, the vic- 
tory of the principle of freedom in Europe. And truly it is so. On several' occasions I 
have discussed already this important topic, and will do so more amply yet on another 
occasion. Here I beg only leave to state briefly a few plain facts. You live by honest 
labor. You have your manufactured products to dispose of, for which you want large 
free markets and free trade. [Great cheering.] Now, it is as obvious as that two 
and two make four, that without Europe becoming free, England can have no free 
trade with Europe. I will show you by stating the facts, that the amount of trade 
with absolutist Russia and Austria is 7d. per head, whereas the amount of trade of 
England with a free country, with the republic of the United States of America, is. 7s. 
per head. What a difference ! Absolutism gives to your trade and industry a market 
of 7d. per head, freedom gives a market of 7s. per head ! [Loud cheers.] Is not the 
freedom of England, then, a question of vital interest to you ? Let us look to the con- 
sequences. Suppose the price of the bread which one of you consumes be £3 or £4 



52 KOSSUTH. 

upon this price you have, by the repeal of the Corn laws, probatly not gained more 
than from 45s. to £1. Certainly a great benefit. But suppose the 120,000.000 who 
inhabit Russia, Austria, Italy and Hungary to become free, and, being free, to consume 
as much of your manufactures as the United States (though in part highly manufactur- 
ing themselves) consume per head; that would give a market of at least £60,000,000 
sterling to England, which would prove a benefit of £2 or £3 a year per head to you. 
I will not, with my aching chest, dwell further upon this subject now, but will cheer- 
fully acknowledge that you were animated in this noble demonstration by higher mo- 
tives — by such generous sentiments as betoken the noblest feelings, and by that moral 
dignity of man which is the revelation of mankind's divine origin. You say, in your kind 
address, that it is the brotherhood of the people in which rests the hope of civiliza- 
tion, of our progress in the peaceful arts, and of the free development of man's noblest 
faculties. Now, these are noble sentiments, told in noble words. I thank you that 
you have expressed so nobly what I feel so warmly. It is my heartfelt creed. You 
say that in the brotherhood of people is the certainty of success in resisting the en- 
croachments of despotic power. Tru ly, it is so ; take the interference of Russia in 
Hungary, of the French Government in Rome, of Austria in Romagna and Schleswig- 
Holstein, and of Austria and Russia in Hesse-Cassel, which made only the most loyal, 
the most moderate, the most lawful opposition to the Absolutist encroachments of its 
petty tyrant, and yet was crushed by Austro-Russian arms — take all this together, and 
the fact is clear that the despotisms are leagued against the freedom of the world, so 
that there is no hope against them but in the brotherhood of people headed and pro- 
tected by England and the United States of America, by uniting in the principle of 
acknowledgment of the natural rights of every nation to dispose of itself, and uniting 
in the principle not to admit any interference of whatever foreign power in the do- 
mestic concerns of whatever nation against its own will. [Loud cheers.] By taking 
Buch a view of the brotherhood of people you are the interpreters of my most warm 
desires, and by assuring me to hope and to be resolved for the future, that Russian in- 
tervention in the domestic concerns of whatever country shall by England not be per- 
mitted more. By this you have anticipated all that I, in my humble quality of a 
representative of the principles of freedom, in the name of my country, and in the in- 
terests of all oppressed nations, have again and again entreated from the people of Eng- 
land since I have been here. And here I meet again another noble idea of your ad- 
dress, where you say that the name of my country is linked in your prayers and in 
your hopes with the name of other nations. Bless you for that word ! You ennoble 
my name and my country's by it. Yet you speak truth. The very moment that 
Russia first interfered in Hungary our struggles grew to an European height ; we 
struggled no more for our own freedom, our own independence, but altogether for the 
freedom and independence of the European Continent. Our cause became the cause 
of mankind. My nation became the martyr of the cause of European freedom in the 
past; of other nations it will be the faithful champion of that freedom for the future. 
I, for my own humble part, whom my people and the public opinion of the world 
took for the personification of my people's sentiments, I know where my place is. I 
know what duties are entailed upon me. I shall insure the sympathies of England 



SPEECH AT THE DEMONSTRATION OF WORKINGMEN. 53 

by my devotion to my country's European cause. England will find me faithful to 
that place and to those duties which my people's confidence have assigned to me ; 
which foreign violence could hinder me from exercising, but whose legitimate charac- 
ter no violence could destroy. Let me also hope that, while Hungary and I are aware 
of the solidarity of our cause with the cause of European freedom and independence, 
and while Hungary is resolved to stand manfully in its place, the other nations, and 
England itself, will not forget that the freedom and independence of Hungary are in- 
dispensable to the independence of Europe against Russian encroachment and pre- 
ponderance, and so neither the other European nations nor England will allow Russia 
again to interfere in order to uphold the detested house of Hapsburg, with which, 
eternally alienated, Hungary will never, through time, have any transaction, unless to 
ban it, e.xpulse it, or to hurl it in the dust. [Loud cheers.] Among the nations 
linked to my country in your hopes and prayers your address especially names France, 
Poland, Gernriany, and Italy. To be sure, there are some of those events which may 
be scented already in the air, As to France, my sentiments are known — I have de- 
clared then] openly. [Loud cheers.] I will be true to those sentiments ; and can 
only add that it is a highly important step in mankind's destiny to see brotherly love 
between nations so substituted for the unhappy rivalries of old as to elicit in England 
also such brotherly welcome to the French as was seen at the late great Exhibition, 
and to elicit such sentiments in England. And so certainly it should ever be. The 
French nation is great enough for the pulsation of its heart to be, and to have been al- 
ways, felt over the greatest part of the European Continent. Till now it is true that 
the expectations have never been realized which Europe's oppressed nations had in 
France, but it must be remembered that the French nation has fallen short in the re- 
alization of its own domestic hopes also. It would, therefore, be unjust to make a 
reproach of that which was a misfortune, which they themselves deplore most deep- 
ly. I attribute their mischance to the unfortunate propensity to centralization which 
the French nation during all its trials conserved — centralization, which leads ever to 
the oppression of liberty — centralization, with which the guarantees of liberty rest 
rather upon personalities than upon principles. And when an omnipotence of power 
is centered, be it in one man or in one assembly, that man must be a Washington, or 
that as-sembly be composed of Washingtons, not to become ambitious, and, through 
ambition, dangerous to liberty. Now, Washingtons are not so thickly sown as to be 
gathered up every where for the reaping. [Hear, hear.] I would, however, solemn- 
ly protest, should v-^hatever nation attempt to meddle in the domestic concerns of my 
fatherland ; so, of course, I cannot have the arrogant pretension of mixing with the 
domestic concerns of whatever other nation, and, least of all, of the great French na- 
tion, which is powerful enough to come at last triumphantly out of its trials and suf- 
ferings. I ha.ve only the warm wish and hope that the glorious French nation will 
soon succeed in making that which is now but a name, the Republic, [great cheering,] 
a reality, and will succeed soon in achieving that work so as to see upon the basis of 
common liberty established the contentment of the people, and, secured by that con- 
tentment, a lasting social order, which cannot fail to be secured when it is founded 
upon liberty, but which, without liberty, is impossible ; and, secondly, I hope that the 



54 



KOSSUTH. 



great French nation, in case it realizes the name which it hears, will not forget that it 
is to her, to England, and to the United States, to check the encroaching spirit of ab- 
solutism wherever it should dare to threaten the independence of nations and their 
right to dispose of themselves. That is what oppressed humanity expects from the 
French Republic, as well as from England and the United States. As for Poland, that 
sad martyr to the most sacrilegious of ambitions, it is enough to say that Poland and 
Hungary are neighbors, and have a common enemy. [Hear, hear.] Though it is 
utterly false to call our past struggles a Polish conspiracy, still I can own loudly, in the 
name of my country, that there is no people on the earth which could feel more inter- 
ested in the future of Poland than the Magyars. We feel also highly gratified to see 
ourselves united in your prayers and hopes with Germany. We are kindred in suffer- 
ings, united in hopes, united in your sympathies. Germany and Hungary must feel 
united in aim and in design. Now, as to Italy — Italy, in so many respects dear to my 
heart — I will not dwell upon its terrible woes ; they are known and appreciated 
through the world, and elicited even in those quarters where it was least expected, 
the strongest indignation of generous men, proving that questions of humanity can in 
England be no party questions. [Cheers.] I will not dwell upon the horrors of 
Naples, out of which even your government publicly foretold that a revolution must 
arise. I will not dwell upon the scaffold which Radetzky reared 3,742 times in three 
short years in Lombardy, [Groans ; after which a copy of The Times was burnt.] I 
will not dwell upon the just hatred of Venice, nor upon the intolerable humiliation 
and nameless sufferings of Rome. I will only say that is not even possible to im- 
agine a stronger identity of interests between two nations than that existing 
between Hungary and Italy. The freedom and independence of these two na- 
tions have the same enemies. They are like two wings of a single army 
ranged against one enemy; the victory of one wing is a victory to the 
other, the defeat of one a misfortune to the other. One cannot become inde- 
pendent and free without the other also becoming so, else there would be no security 
to their freedom and independence. So it is not even possible to imagine a stronger 
link of brotherhood than that which between the two nations needs must exist. I con- 
fidently believe that this imperious necessity must be equally felt on both sides, and 
that both nations must be penetrated by the conviction of it as strongly as myself — 
the more because there is a happy incident which must further strengthen the har- 
mony, hopes, feelings, and wishes between Hungary and Italy. I will tell it to you. 
There are new doctrines agitated in certain countries, which, by what right it is not 
mine to investigate, are considered by many to be inconipatible with social order and 
with the principle of security of property. Now, Hungary has, and will have, with 
these doctrines nothing to do, for the most simple and most decisive reason, that in 
Hilingary there is no occasion, there is not the slightest opportunity for them. We 
have not the disease, so we want no medical speculations about the remedy. We want 
freedom and independence, and to be rescued from the evil — the Austrian dynasty. 
But we want no theoretical speculations about property — we want them as little as 
the citizens of the United States, whose institutions we wish to have established in our 
country, with the difference that Hungary is, and will not be divided in states, but will 



SPEECH AT THE DEMONSTRATION OF WORKINGMEN. 55 

be one country, composed of free municipalities. And I am confidently assured that 
all this is the very case also with Italy. Italy has also no occasion to share those doc- 
trines, therefore, neither its people nor its popular leaders have whatever to do with 
them ; and I am, therefore, glad hy my own feelings to know that this happy coinci- 
dence of circumstances can only strengthen the harmony, brotherly love, and union 
which between these two nations must exist, in consequence of the identity of their in- 
terests. So, in response to your wishes, hopes and sympathies, I will only say that my 
restoration to personal freedom I value chiefly on account of seeing myself restored to 
activity and to my country's service. I have the full conviction of my country's free- 
dom and independence being intimately identified with the freedom and independence 
of Europe, and even with some very important interests of England itself ' Reso- 
lutely I accept in my position all duties as well as all dangers of this persuasion ; and 
my country, as well as all other peoples who share this identity, will always find me 
faithful to them. I wish only to see them having some confidence not only in my 
frankness, but also to my mind, which, though feeble in faculties, will for ever con- 
serve the merit of unwavering consistency and of distinterested resignation. [Cheers.] 
I unite with you unchangeably in the fraternal sentiments which you will express in 
this, your address, tov^ard Turkey, and I decidedly declare that I never will join any 
combination, however promising, which might do that country injury. I will rather 
promote its interests, fully aware that Turkey is not in contradiction with the interests 
of Europe, as the Czar and the Hapsburgs are, but rather in several respects necessary 
to Europe, and chiefly to England and to Hungary. Turkey is a neighboring country 
to my fatherland. We have enemies enough. I am no impractical theorist, to make 
of a neighbor a new enemy, instead of respecting his interests ; but would have him, 
if not an ally, at least a friend for his own interest's sake. As to the glorious Republic 
of the United States, which has thrown its protecting flag around me, let me hope that 
the common sympathy which these two kindred nations, England and the United States, 
bear to the cause of my country and to myself, will be the first link of a closer union of 
the politics of the two countries in respect to Europe, which union, convenient as it is to 
both your great, glorious and free countries, would make a happy turning-point in the 
destinies of humanity. I should not have lived in vain should I have lived to be the 
opportunity of such a consummation. And here I would not, were it not my duty to 
reflect upon certain circumstances which I consider so extraordinary as to feel obliged 
to avail myself of this first opportunity which offers itself to meet openly. The cir- 
cumstance is, that I considered, and consider it still, to be my duty not to mix with any 
great party question of England, or of any other country. I wish the non-admission 
of foreign intervention in my own country, so I must have clean hands myself in re- 
spect to other countries. That is my position, to which I will conscientiously adhere, 
I consider, therefore, that my dut)^, as well as the respect to your law, honesty as well 
as prudence, obliges me not to play here the passionate part of an agitator, not to co- 
quet with the reputation of being a revolutionist. [Hear.] In fact, I came hither not 
to get this reputation, but rather I declare my conviction to be that England wants no 
revolution at all — (a few cries of ' hear, hear,') — because, first, it wishes but a progres- 
sive development, and, secondly, because England has sufficient political freedom to be 



«56 KOSSUTH. 

insured that whatever England may still need it will not only carry out, but 
will carry it out peaceably. Now, this being my duty and my resolution, I act con- 
sistently — my ground was, is, and will be, in England, this. Such and such are 
the true facts of the past struggles of Hungary. These facts, I confidently hope, 
are certain to secure the generous sentiments of England to my country's cause. I 
stated that, in my opinion, the form of government can be different in different 
countries, according to their circumstances, their wishes and their wants. England 
loves her Queen, and has full motive to do so ; England feels great, glorious and free, 
and has full motive to feel so: but England being a monarchy, that can be no sufficient 
reason to her to hate and discredit republican forms of government in other countries 
differing in circumstances, in wishes, and in wants. On the contrary, the United 
States of America, being likewise a great, glorious and free country, under republican 
government, the circumstance of being republicans cannot give them sufficient motive 
to hate and discredit monarchical government in England. This must be entirely left 
to the right of every nation to dispose of its domestic concerns. Therefore, all I claim 
for my country also, is, that England, seeing out of our past that our cause is just, 
should acknowledge the sovereign right of every nation to dispose of itself, and, by ac- 
knowledging this, England should not interfere, but also not allow any power what- 
ever to interfere with the domestic matters of my country, or of whatever other 
nation. The rest should be left to the respective nations themselves, the more because 
it is worthy of that independence for which we struggled. I, therefore, thought that 
this was not the place for me to speak about the future organization and formation of 
government of my country, because that is a home question of ours, with which no- 
body ought to interfere. (Loud cheers.) But my beha;vior was not everywhere ap- 
preciated as I hoped. I met rather in certain quarters the remarks that I am slippery 
and evade the question. Now, on the sense of sincerity I am particularly susceptible. 
I have the sentiment of being a plain, honest man, and I would not be charged with 
having entered by stealth into the sympathies of England without displaying my true 
colors. (Loud cheers.) Therefore, I must state clearly that in our past struggle we 
made no revolutions. (Hear, hear.) We began to transform in a peaceful, legislative 
manner, the monarchico-aristocratical constitution of Hungary into a monarchico-demo- 
cratical constitution ; we conserved our municipal institutions as our most valuable 
treasure, but gave them, as well as to the legislative power, for basis, the common 
liberty of the people ; instead of the class privileges of old, we established the personal 
responsibility of ministers ; instead of the board of council of old, which, being a 
nominal body, was of course a mockery, to that responsibility of the executive, which 
was our chartered right on paper, but not in reality. - However, we but conserved that 
which was due to us by constitution, by treatise, by the coronation oath of every king, 
to be governed as a self-consistent, independent country, by our own native institutions, 
according to our laws. We established the freedom of thought, of the word and pen, 
and secured the freedom of conscience. We introduced, with the abolition of exemp- 
tions, equality in duties and rights before the law. We obliged all to contribute to the 
public necessity, every man according to his faculties ; we emancipated the peasants, 
or rather gave them the land they tilled to be their free property. We made the soil free, 



SPEECH AT THE DEMONSTRATION OF WORKINGMEN. 57 

the laborer free, the industry free, trade free ; but we spared all existing material in- 
terests of every class, and resolved full indemnification for every material loss. We 
established trial by jury, provided for independent administration of justice, cared for 
cheap government, and took care that the national army should not become a tool of 
ambition among ourselves or an instrument of oppression against foreign nations. All 
this we did peacefully by careful legislation, which the king sanctioned and swore to 
maintain. But this very dynasty, in the most perjurious manner^ attacked these laws, 
this freedom, this constitution, and our national existence, by arms. (Cheers.) We 
defended ourselves by arms victoriously ; and, after the perjurious dynasty called in 
the armies of Russia to beat us down, we resolved to defend ourselves against this 
tyrannical invader also, but, of course, declared the perjurious Hapsburgs not to be more 
oUr sovereigns ; deposed them ; banished them ; and declared ourselves a free and in- 
dependent nation, but fixed no definite form of government — neither monarchical nor 
republican — declaring ourselves rather to be willing to follow the advice of the Euro- 
pean circumstances. These are facts which cannot be altered, because they are facts. 
By this you see that in the past we made no resolution at all as to the future. Every 
just man must acknowledge that Hungary has fairly exhausted every peaceful means 
of self-preservation; it is not under the rule of the king, but under the iron oppression 
of a tyrant, who conquered Hungary by calling in sacrilegiously to his aid the armies 
of the Czar. So Hungary is not under government but under a foreign intruder, who 
is not King of Hungary, being neither acknowledged by the nation nor sanctioned by 
law. Hungary is, in a word, in a state of war against the Hapsburg dynasty. Hun- 
gary can in no other way regain its independence and freedom, but in that way in 
which it was deprived of it — by war — as every nation which is free and independent 
conquered its deliverance from its oppressors, like Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Por- 
tugal, France, Sweden, Norway, Greece, the United States, and England itself — 
(cheers) — that is, by a revolution, as some would call it — by a war of legitimate de- 
fense, as I call it. I will ever respect the laws of England, and do nothing here con- 
trary to them — ^but so much I can state as a matter of fact, that my nation will never 
accept and acknowledge the perjured house of Hapsburg to become again lawful 
sovereigns of Hungary — never will it enter into any transactions whatever with that 
perjurious family, but will avail itself of every opportunity to shake off its yoke. 
Secondly, that though the pecple of Hungary were monarchical for 1,000 years, yet the 
continued perjury of the Hapsburgs during 300 years, the sacrilegious faithlessness by 
which it destroyed its own historical existence, with the historical existence of my 
nation, as also my country's present intolerable oppression, have so entiiely plucked 
out of the heart of my nation every faith, belief, and attachment to monarchy, that 
there is no power on earth to knit the broken tie again ; and, therefore, Hungary wills 
and wishes to be a free and independent republic ; but a republic founded on the rule 
of law, securing social order, security to person and to property, and the moral devel- 
opment as well as the material welfare of the people — (cheers) — in a word a republic 
like that of the United States, founded on institutions inherited from England itself. 
This is the conviction of my people, which 1 share in the very heart of my heart. I 
confidently hope the people of England will appreciate the justice of these remarks, 



58 KOSSUTH. 

and the honest convictions of my heart ; and that it will not falter in its attachment to 
that cause which it honored with its sympathy, which it judged to he righteous and 
true, and which it consoled hy its wishes and hopes. All I entreat is, that the people 
of England may not give a charter to the Czar to dispose of the world ; hut rather 
make, by its powerful position, respected the right of every nation to dispose of itself. 
With this hope, I thank you once more for your sympathy. I beg leave, fatigued as I 
am to retire, confidently trusting your noble-minded feelings cannot have the will to 
divert this demonstration of your sympathy into any party discussions whatever, in 
which I consequently could not participate, but which still could not fail to in- 
crease the difRcultieSj and do harm to my country's cause, which you honor by your 
sympathy." 



SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 



Ladies and gentlemen, in your expectations to hear from rrie an eloquent speech I 
very much fear you will he disappointed — disappointed, because' since my arrival m 
England I have been so mUch occupied vinth the sympathy of the people of England, 
that I could not find sufficient time to prepare an eloquent speech, even carefully pre- 
pared in words; for in England, where every word is caught by the press— that 
mother and guardian of all progress — every word should be weighed, and carefully 
weighed, by any man in my position. [Cheers.] Secondly, you will be disappomted, 
becaase I have to follow the eloquent speech which you have heard, before which I 
can only incline in respect. And lastly, you will be disappointed, because, although I 
may be eloquent in my own language, when I want to give inspiration to those -Who 
hear me, I try to get inspiration from you. [Hear.] Therefore, eloquence will not 
be found in my humble speech. I therefore claim your indulgence to excuse any de- 
fects in my language. It was said of one of the kings of Epirus that he once sent a 
messenger to Rome, who reported to his master, on his return, that he had seen a city 
of kings where every man was as much as in Epirus the king himself was. Since 1 
have been in England, I have seen public opinion pronounced in such a voice that I am 
reminded of that which Lord Brougham once said, that now and then in the words of 
the people the thunder of the Almighty was heard. [Cheers.] The greeting which 
I received at Southampton v/as very dear to my heart, and having received addresses 
from all parts of England, I have been able to form some idea of the people of Eng- 
land ; and after the demonstrations of London, of Birmingham, and of Manchester, I 
may say the public opinion of England has proclaimed to the oppressed nations of 
Europe, be of good cheer. [Applause.] I have had experiettce enough in public life 
to know that public opinion, as pronounced by the people of England, in that class of 
which I am one of the humble representatives, may be dissimulated as a whole — it 
may, perhaps, be jeered at heartily, but at last obeyed it must be— [Cheers] — because 
England is a constitutional country, and in a constitutional country public opinion is ac- 
knowledged by law and by right to give a direction to the proceedings of the Govern- 
ment and Parliament. I know what power public opinion might have a right to claim 
in this glorious land ; and, because I know it, I may be permitted to say that I cannot 
thank the people of England — I cannot thank the people of Manchester for their aid 
in the cause of humanity in my own name ; but I thank them in the name of oppressed 
nations. Since my arrival on England's happy shores, I have had a continual oppor- 
tunity of witnessing the pronouncing of that public opinion in respect to a question 



60 KOSSUTH. 

the solution of which is ostensibly marked out by Providence to be a test of our time 
— a question which will decide the fate of mankind for centuries. The question ia 
none of scanty and partial interest, it is none of noble commiseration for the misfortunes 
of individuals or of country, but it is a question of universal interest, in which every 
country, every people, is equally interested. (Cheers.) There may be a difference aa 
to the succession of time in which the one or the other nation may be affected by the 
unavoidable consequences of this question, but affected they really are. Sooner or 
later is a mere question of time ; and no nation, no country, however proud its posi- 
tion may be, and chiefly none within the boundary of the Christian family and of 
European civilization, can avoid sharing the consequences of this comprehensive ques- 
tion, which will be the permanent fate of humanity. (Hear, hear, hear.) I need 
scarcely say that this is a comprehensive question — Whether Europe shall be ruled by 
the principles of freedom or the principles of despotism. (Cries of " Freedom.") To 
bring home in a practical way to your generous hearts that idea of freedom, the ques- 
tion is, whether Europe shall be ruled by the principle of centralization or by the prin- 
ciple of self-government, because self-government is freedom, and centralization is ab- 
solutism. (Hear, hear.) Shall freedom die away for centuries, and mankind become 
nothing more than a blind instrument for the ambition of some few ? Shall the brand 
of servitude be written on the brow of humanity? woe, ten thousand woes, to 
every nation which, confident in its proud position, regards with carelessness the com- 
prehensive struggle of this great principle ! It is the mythical struggle between 
heaven and hell. To be blessed or to be damned is the fate of all. There is no transi- 
tion between heaven and hell. Woe ten thousand-fold to every nation which would 
not embrace within its sorrows and its cares the future, but only the passing moment 
of the present time. As the sun looms through the mist before he rises, so the spirit 
of the future is seen in the events of the present day. There are some who endeavor 
to counteract the demonstrations of sympathy which I have the honor to meet by the 
narrow circle of personality. They would fain make believe that there is nothing 
more in this demonstration than a matter of fashion — a transitory ebullition of 
popular feeling, passing away like a momentary bubble, or at most a tribute of appro- 
bation to the behavior of a gallant people in a great cause, and of consolation to its 
unmerited misfortunes. But . 1 say it is not so. I say that the very source of 
this demonstration i§ the instinctive feeling of the people that the destiny of man- 
kind is come to the turning-point for centuries. It is the manifestation of the instinct of 
self-preservation raised by an instinctive knowledge of the fact that the decisive strug- 
gle in the destinies of Europe is so near, and that no people, no country, can remain 
unaffected by the issue of this struggle. A great writer tells us that the despotic Go- 
vernments of Europe have become weak, the despotic Governments feel their ap- 
proaching death near, and that they will go to their rest, and I hope this struggle will 
be the last in mankind's history. (Hear, hear.) That is the state of the case, as I 
conceive it. It is not my individuality — it is not my presence which has roused any 
new sentiment, any new feeling. I am nothing but the opportunity M'hich elicited 
the hidden spark — the opportunity which brings instinctive apprehension of approach- 
ing danger to all nations. It was a ground of alarm, or else how can the sophist ex- 



SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 61 

plain the fact of the universality of this denionstration, not restricted to iny presence, 
not restricted to climate, not restricted to the singular character of a people, or of a so- 
ciety's organization, but spreading through the world like the pulsation of a heart, like 
the spark of an electric battery. The numerous addresses, full of the most generous 
sentiments, which I have been honored with in England, are the effect of my presence 
here. I have kindled a spark among a great people. From the metropolis of the 
world down to the solitary hamlet, the people all join in the same view, and I humbly 
entreat you to consider that this feeling is not restricted even to England itself Tl:e 
glorious Republic of the United States, Italy, France, the noble-minded English garri- 
son in Gibraltar, the warm-hearted Portuguese, have joined in these views ; and on the 
very day when a deputation came to England to honor me with the greetings of Bel- 
glum, that lofty monument of the love of freedom and of its indomitable force, I got 
the knowledge of a similar demonstration in Sweden. Is this an accident ? Is this 
ftshion ? Is this personal ? What have I in me, in my person, in my present, in my 
future, to justify, to explain, this universalit5r of demonstration ? Nothing ; not en- 
tirely nothing, only the knowledge that I am a friend to freedom— the friend of the 
people. I am nothing but the opportunity of the manifestation of the instinctive 
feeling of many nations that the dragon of oppression draws near, and that the St. 
George of liberty is ready to wrest with him. (Cheers.) How can I state that the 
struggle is so near ? I state it because it is so. Every man knows it— every man feels 
if — every man sees it. A phijosopher was once questioned how he could prove the 
existence of God ? " Why," says he, "by opening my eyes. God is seen every where 
— in the grf-wth of the grass and in the movement of the stars, in the warbling of the 
Mk and in the thunder of heaven." Even so I prove that the decisive struggle in 
mankind's destiny draws near. I appeal to the sight of your eyes^I appeal to the pul- 
sation of your hearts — I appeal to the judgment of your minds. You know it— you 
see it — you feel it — that judgment is drawing near. How blind are those men who 
have the affectation to believe, or at least to assert, that it is only certain men who 
push on the revolutions of the continent of Europe, which, but for these revolutionary 
parties, would be quiet and contented. (Laughter.) With what ? With oppression 
and servitude. (Hear, hear.) France, contented with its constitution, turned into a 
pasquinade ; Germany, contented with being but a fold of sheep, pent up to be shorn 
by some dirty petty tyrants — (cheers) — Switzerland, contented with the threatening 
ambition of encroaching despots ; Italy, contented with the King of Naples — (laughter) 
— or with the priestly Government of Rome, the worst of inventions ; Austria, Bohe- 
mia, Croatia, Dalmatia, contented with being driven to butchery, after having been de- 
ceived, oppressed, and laughed at as fools ; Poland, contented with being murdered; 
Hungary, my poor Hungary, contented with being more than murdered — bui-ied alive, 
because it is alive. [Loud and repeated cheers.] What I feel is but a weak pulsation 
of that feeling which in the breast of my nation beats. Prussia contented with sla- 
very — Venice, Flansburgh, Lombardy, Pesth, Milan, Venice, Breslau, contei.ted with 
having been bombarded, burnt, plundered, sacked, and its population butchered; and 
half of the empire contented with the scaffold, the hangman, and the prison; with hav- 
ing no political rights, but with having paid innumerable millions for the highly bene- 



62 KOSSUTH. 

ficial purpose of being kept in serfdom. [Hear.] That is the condition of the Euro- 
pean continent. And is it not ridiculous to see and hear men talk of individuals dis- 
turbing the tranquillity of Europe ? Why are there no revolutionary movements in 
England? Why is there tranquillity and peace in England and Belgium? Because 
you want no revolution — [cheers] — because you are insured by your institutions, your 
public spirit, that whatever here in England is requisite to be done — because no human 
thing is perfect^t will be done. [Loud cheers.] I would like to see the man who 
would stand up here in England to make a revolution. (Laughter.) But, on the con- 
tinent of Europe — on the greatest part at least — ye tyrants of the world, ye haye^de- 
stroyed its peace and tranquillity — ye have shaken the very foundations of it, and it 
will not, it cannot be restored until ye are hurled down to annihilation, ye sworn 
enemies of mankind, freedom, dignity, and welfare. Only let us cast back a look to the 
gigantic war which against Napoleon was fought. The promise of freedom brought the 
nations into the fight. Afterwards came the Congress of Vienna, where the ambitious 
masters of the world disposed of mankind like cattle herds ; but even there the inter- 
ference of England in the settlement M'as a guarantee to mankind for some constitution- 
al life at least ; and even your Castlereaghs were wise enough not to abandon Europe 
to oppression. The constitutional life and existence of Poland, and of many other na- 
tions, were guaranteed. But where is Poland now ? Where is constitutional Europe 
now ? And here I would put the question to the very statesmen of England who be- 
long to the most retrograde school, Is the present condition of Europe that for which 
the people of England shed their blood in torrents, spent innumerable millions, for 
which you are taxed even now to pay the interest of those millions ? Oppression went 
on. The promises of the despots turned, out to be perjurious falsehoods. France be- 
stirred itself, and the despots trembled and hushed the nation to sleep in new promises, 
new engagements, new lies. (Cheers.) Oh, how humble they were in those days ! I 
have seen some of them — I have weighed them in this very hand of mine. Formerly 
they broke only their word. They were saved by arms from the consequence of their 
sworn oath, and every tie was broken, every sentiment violated. Prayers to God 
were mingled with curses against the despots, and Europe's oppressed nations shook 
their chains, and weeping millions deplore their present condition. This is the present 
state of the European continent — at least of the greater part ; and still there are men 
speaking of regard to these despots, whilst they are silent upon the duties towards hu- 
manity — speaking about the danger of offending tyrants, while they are silent about 
the danger of disregarding the condition of mankind. But the people of England have 
not disregarded. The people of England instinctively feel that we are on the eve of a 
day when liberty or despotism must be crushed down.; the people of England feel that 
the cause of freedom is in intimate connection with the principle of freedom on the 
European continent ; the people of England feel that it is only the solidarity of nations 
which can insure humanity against the solidarity of despotism ; and it is of these things 
my humble self has been by a ruling Providence chosen to furnish an opportunity. 
And why is it ? The reason is this : I have in some measure the honor to represent 
the cause of Hungary. It is Russian interference in Hungary which put the bond of 
serfdom on the neck of Europe — it is the unmerited fall of my nation which brought 



SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. 63 . 

home to your minds, and those of other nations, the idea that, if not soon opposed by 
the principle of freedom, the moment is drawing near when Europe will be almost 
Cossack. (Hear, hear.) You must be aware of the circumstances that the independence 
of Hungary is the bulwark against Russian preponderance on the Continent ; and I 
beg you to be aware that what the people feel instinctively is. that the cause of Hun- 
gary is the incarnation of a principle of self-government which can exist no longer in 
Europe without the independence of Hungary. These are the motives which I have 
given the opportunity of being manifested by so many nations of the earth. I was anx- 
ious to establish this point, in order that I may not be charged with importunity when 
I here presume to ask the people of England what is the practical meaning of this 
sympathy. I feel too anxious to establish this view, that the cause of Hungary, for 
which I humbly ask your protection, is not an object of generous commiseration, but 
a question of European interest ; and here I cannot forbear to quote the opinion of one 
of the gentlemen of the Democratic Party — one of the future candidates for the presi- 
dency of the United States. Mr. Walker on that occasion said : — [The honorable 
gentleman then quoted the opinion expressed by Mr. Walker, the American Consul, at 
Southampton, on the occasion of the banquet given in that town, on the subject of non- 
intervention, of which he expressed his high and perfect approval.] I ask with con- 
fidence, what will be the practical issue of this sympathy of the people of England ? 
I have reason to look with particular interest to Manchester in respect to the solution 
of this question. Manchester is a young city. In 1720 it was a village with 24,000 
inhabitants, and now it is the first manufacturing city in the world, with nearly half a 
million. It is glorious to have an old age in countries and cities, and to outlive the 
vicissitudes of centuries, but it is no small glory to have grown up to be a giant in a 
short period. To you I look for a practical result in this respect. My second reason 
is, because Manchester and Liverpool form the most powerful link between England 
and the United States. Commerce is the locomotive of principles. [Loud cheers.] 
Your glorious distinction is to frame the spirit of the public opinion with that of the 
United States, for the purpose of uniting the policy of both countries with respect to 
Europe. That union, I say with the deepest possible conviction, will be the turning- 
point in the destinies of Europe. England and the United States, united in their poli- 
cy, cannot but side with freedom. There is one point on which I most humbly expect 
the support of Manchester, and that city which is in most intimate connection with the 
United States. When I go to the United States within the next few days, it will be 
my duty to try and promote that union. I have some hope, with your generous aid, 
to succeed ; first, because there is in the United States already a great party which 
profess to. unite with England in her policy towards the world ; secondly, because the 
fate of Hungary had already contributed to strengthen the feelings of brotherhood, 
both countries having united in rescuing me out of captivity ; and I may therefore say 
that the first link in that union is already made ; and thirdly, because all depends upon 
a true and exact definition. We are told that, in the United States, non-intervention 
is a ruling principle in European matters. I say, very wise were those men who es- 
tablished that principle, and very wise were those who followed it. But neither those 
who established that principle — neither those that followed it — ever meant that the 



64 KOSSUTH. 

United States liad nothing to do and nothing to regard as to humanity — that their 
principle was non-intervention — that is, the recognition and acknowledgn:ient of the 
uhdoubted right of every nation to regulate her own donnestic affairs; and the 
United States have declared it not right to interfere with the affairs of other 
countries. She says if a country chooses to be a monarchy, it shall he — if it chocs-" 
es to be a despotism, it shall be — but it depends on its people. (Hear, hear.) I 
look with peculiar hope to Manchester, and I bow with deep respect to this 
hall. (Cheers.) Manchester carried the principle of Free Trade. (Hear, hear) 
Whatever Manchester undertakes she will carry. You may think it strange, but I 
say that Free Trade is not carried out; cheap bread is carried, but Free Trade is 
not carried. But Free Trade will be carried when the producers of English Indus- 
try obtain a fair access to the markets of Europe, from which, by the absolutist 
principle, they are now excluded. The freedom of Europe is connected not only 
with a Free Trade spirit, but with the interest of the Protectionist party in Eng- 
land. Were I a Protectionist, I would carry out the principle of free exportation to 
other countries, so that the industry employed should be greater, the wages bet- 
ter. Hungary, even in its present depressed position, consumes in cotton £2,500,000 
sterling, but not a single yard of Manchester industry is there seen. Why? 
Because free commerce is shut out. And what would be this market if Hungary 
should be placed on the basis of liberty? Of course, greater development of industry 
would take place. The hon. gentleman then referred to the parliamentary returns 
for the last six years, for the purpose of showing that, whilst the exports of despotic 
countries, such as Russia and Austria, had decreased, the exports to America had con- 
siderably increased per head in proportion to the increase of the population. You 
wish naturally to reduce your taxation by putting down those things whose existence 
tends to the disturbance of peace. But how can you reduce your armies whilst 
France keeps up her forces; and how can you expect France to disarm whilst the 
despotism of Europe is existing ? On this ground I venture to entreat your aid for the 
victory of the principle of liberty on the European Continent. I ask the support of 
the Free-trade school ; and I am sure that you are not the men to do things by ha'ves. 
(Cheers.) I do look to Manchester as a place where sympathy will take a practical 
direction. Before my coming to you I was asked, what can you have to do in Man- 
chester, where so many influential individuals are so intimately connected with a 
peace association, whereas you of course must be a man of war .' What Austria, by 
Russian arms, has taken from Hungary sh.j will not restore if possible. Francis 
Joseph, although a Jesuit, has not the intention to exchange his purple for the frock of 
a monk, like Charles V. I look confidently to the several great associations of Eng- 
land to support that great cause of which I am one of the humble representatives. I 
hope the cause will be supported by your religious associations, which are desirous of 
supporting freedom of conscience against despotism, for in these very days the Protes- 
tants of Hungai'y have been obliged to close their schools in consequence of the man- 
ner in which their education has been interfered with. I look for the protection of 
your reform societies, and of the Free-trade societies, of the Association of the Friends 
of Italy — for the cause of Hungary and ofTtaly are identical. (Cheers.) I openly 



SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. " 65 

declare that to none of these societies do I look with more hope than to the Peace 
Association, and the eloquent speech delivered by your member shows that I have not 
looked for the support of that association in vain. (Cheers.) After eulogizing the 
principles of the Peace Society, M. Kossuth went on to say that he had not come to 
England to ask the interference of this country. He had not come to England to ask 
this country to take any steps for the restoration of Europe. He only entreated Eng- 
land to respect and make every nation respect the right of each country to regulate 
its own domestic concerns. (Cheers.) Public opinion was almighty where it could 
act and could make itself respected. This belief gave force to public opinion, and 
therefore nothing could withstand it. He declared for himself that he would have 
peace, and that all the nations of the world would have peace. But peace was not 
prison. Where there was peace there would be freedom, but peace there could not 
be so long as the welfare and moral dignity of nations continued to be sacrificed to the 
ambition of a few families — (cheers) — peace could not be so long as the entire system 
of the government of the greatest part of Europe could be summed up in these words, 
' People, pay, because we want spies and soldiers to keep you in servitude.' God has 
not created this fair world to be the prison of humanity. Peace could only be founded 
on contentment in nations, and it was only in the garden of liberty that contentment 
would grow. It was a calumny, it was perjury, to charge the people with being 
lovers of disorder, and discord, and mischief Where there was freedom there was 
order. He had never seen greater order than amongst the thousands now assembled. 
There was no nation that liked discord. But there were many nations that hated op- 
pression, and his nation ■^as one of those. (Cheers.) In the name of his poor coun- 
try and of humanity he would entreat the practical and glorious people of Manches- 
ter to give their generous sympathy towards his cause. Never in his life had he asked 
anything for himself He would rather starve. But in the cause of the liberty of his 
poor country he should not be ashamed to go begging from door to door. (Loud 
cheers.) He confidently declared that he believed every interior question of great 
importance in England was now resumed on the foreign affair. The principle of Free 
Trade was there resumed. It depended entirely upon our foreign relations whether 
the English should have Free Trade in Europe. The principles of reform depended 
on the liberties of Europe ; and therefore he humbly entreated the people of England 
to bestow more attention and sympathy on our foreign relations. If diplomacy was 
properly carried out, it would give the public opinion of England such a weight in the 
destinies of mankind that it would carry out the victory of the principle of liberty. 
Wherever he might go, he would speak of the sovereign right of nations to form their 
own governments ; and he would never say that humanity was a thing which could 
only be modeled and pressed in a single form. (Cheers.) Some observations of his 
had been misconstrued in replying to an address a few days ago. He was represented 
as having said that there was no other form of government but that of a republic. He 
never said so. What he said was this. He said that he considered the form of gov- 
ernment might be different, according to the peculiar circumstances of a country — 
the form in England was a Monarchy, and that in the United States Republican ; but 
both were compatible with social order. The honorable gentleman concluded by say- 
5 



66 KOSSUTH. 

ing, " People of Manchester ! let not the world, let not history see, that on the eve of 
a great struggle between despotism and liberty you have nothing but the principle of 
freedom and confession of tender heart. People of Manchester, people of England, 
out with your manly resolution against the despots of the world — cry 'stop,' and the 
puppets will fall, and you will have given freedom to the world." 

Dr. Vaughan proposed a vote of thanks to the Government and people of the 
United States. The motion was seconded by Mr. Absalom Walker and carried with 
acclamation. 

Mr. Thomas Bazley proposed the thanks of the meeting to the Sultan of Turkey, 
which, being seconded by Mr. Henry Rawson, was carried unanimously. 

After a vote of thanks to the chairman, which was moved by M. Kossuth, the pro- 
ceedings terminated at a quarter-past ten. 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 



Immediately after the presentation of the addresses the company assembled in the 
Music Hall, where the Banquet took place. The magnificent hall presented on this 
occasion a most splendid spectacle. Suspended from the walls were a number of Hun- 
garian flags. The fronts of the galleries were tastefully decorated w^ith evergreens 
and flowers, and on a score of banners, wreathed round with laurels, the greatest names 
in Hungarian history were duly honored. Among them were the immortal Bem, 
Perczel, Klapka, Guyon, Count Louis Batthyani, Lasroyski, Baron Jeszensk, Dembin- 
ski, Major Murinan, Wysveke, Vettar, and others. Over the banners devoted to the 
memory of the great departed crape was thrown, in tribute of respect for the noble 
deeds which they had achieved in life. 

The side galleries were filled with ladies in full dress, all of them displaying the 
Hungarian colors. Such had been the anxiety of the fair sex to be present, that the 
tickets, at first issued at five shillings, rose ultimately as high as fifteen shillings, at 
which they were disposed of on the day preceding the banquet The organ and great 
galleries were densely crowded. 

As M. Kossuth rose to address the meeting, the moment he was on his legs every 
person in the room stood up and hailed with a shout which must have been heard far 
beyond the walls of the building. Again and again the cheering was repeated, the 
ladies being quite as enthusiastic in their demonstrations of sympathy as the gentle- 
men, but exhibiting in the quieter way of waving their handkerchiefs. Silence being 
at length obtained, the illustrious Magyar proceeded to speak as follows : 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — ^Three years ago yonder house of Austria, 
which had chiefly me to thank for not having been swept away by the revolution of Vien- 
na, in March, 1848, having in return answered by the most foul, most sacrilegious conspi- 
racy against the chartered rights, freedom, and national existence of my native land, it be- 
came my share, being then member of the ministry, with undisguised truth to lay be- 
fore the Parliament of Hungary the immense danger of our bleeding fatherland. 
[Hear, hear.] Having made the sketch, which, however dreadful, could be but a faint 
shadow of the horrible reality, I proceeded to explain the terrible alternations which 
our terrible destiny left to us, after the failure of all our attemptci to avert the evil. 
Reluctant to present the neck of the realm to the deadly snake aimed at its very life, 
and anxious to bear up against the horrors of fate, and manfully to fight the battle of 
legitimate defense ; — scarcely had I spoken the word — scarcely had I added words that 
the defense would require 200,000 men, and eighty millions of florins, when the spirit 



68 KOSSUTH. 

of freedom moved through the hall, and nearly 400 Representatives rose as one man, 
and lifting their right arms toward God, solemnly said, " We grant it — freedom ot 
death." [The solemnity of gesture and voice with which M. Kossuth uttered these 
words produced a powerful effect on the assembly.] Thus they spoke, and there 
they swore, in a calm and silent majesty, awaiting what further word might fall from 
my lips. And for myself: it was my duty to speak, but the grandeur of the moment^ 
and the rushing waves of sentiment, benumbed my tongue. A burning tear fell frora 
my eyes, a sigh of adoration to the Almighty Lord fluttered my lips ; and, bowing 
low before the majority of my people, as I bow now before you, gentlemen, I left the 
tribunal silently, speechless, mute. [M. Kossuth here paused for a few moments' 
overpowered by his emotion, with which the company deeply sympathized.] Par- 
don me my emotion — the shadows of our martyrs passed before my eyes ; I heard the 
millions of my native land once more shouting liberty or death. [Loud cheers.] As 
I was then, Sirs, so am I now. [Hear, hear.] I would thank you, gentlemen, for the 
generous sympathy with which, in my undeserving person — [No, no] — you have hon- 
ored the bleeding, the oppressed, but not broken, Hungary. [Cheers.] I would thank 
you for the ray of hope which the sympathy of the English people casts on the night 
of our fate. I would thank you, gentlemen, warmly as I feel, and as becomes the dig- 
nity of your glorious land. But the words fail me ; they fail me, not only from want 
of knowledge of your language, but chiefly because my sentiments are deep and fer- 
vent and true. (Loud cheers.) The tongue of man is powerful enough to render the 
ideas which the human intellect conceives ; but in the realm of true and deep senti- 
ments it is but a weak interpreter. These are inexpressible, like the endless glory of 
the Omnipotent. (Loud cheers.) But could I dare to say something about my hum- 
ble self without becoming presumptuous, I would beg leave to state that it is not only 
from to-day, but even from my early youth, I have been spiritually connected with 
Britannia. (Hear, hear.) I was yet young, Sir, under rigorous circumstances, almost 
didactically, preparing my soul for the duty, which is a common one to us all, to be use- 
ful, as far as possible, to fatherland and humanity. (Hear, hear.) The great things 
that have since occurred I could not then anticipate. I could not anticipate that it was 
I who would have by my sufferings to break away to the freedom of thought in my 
native land — that it was I who, by applying to several special objects of association 
which has produced so many wonders in this glorious country — should have unprece- 
dented influence on my nation's life, capable of leading from the indifference of despon- 
dency to the cheerfulness of activity, and by activity to self-confidence — (hear, hear ;} 
that the liberation of my people from those hereditary burthens that have weighed 
them down for 500 years ; that the political emancipations which transformed the 
close hall of privileges into an open temple of common liberty; that the sanction 
of the great principle of equality in duties and rights should ever be associated with 
the recollection of my humble name, or that it should be my lot to reconcile the stub- 
bornness of past ages with present necessities and the exigencies of modern times. I 
could not anticipate that it was I who should at one time of my life be the shield of 
protection to the head of the proud house of Hapsburg in his own imperial residence, 
and that, seeing this service returned by a war of extermination to my native land, it 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 69 

should be my destiny to lead on Hungary in such a gigantic struggle for independence 
—that struggle which but for a moment— yes, with unshaken trust in the justice of 
God, I swear — for a moment only, even the combined powers of the despots of two 
large empires were able to overcome, by getting for an ally a traitor in our own ranks 
— that it should be my destiny to lead on Hungary in such a contest, which, spite of 
its momentary misfortunes, will still prove the death-blow to the bondage of feudality, 
the turning point in the future of at least one-half of the European Continent, a cry of 
alarm to all nations to unite in the cause of freedom against the union of absolutism — 
(hear, hear,] and to raise my nation out of the narrow proportion of a provincial veg- 
«tation to such a rank as would make her an element indispensable to the triumph of 
civilization and liberty ; and at last that I, the insignificant son of modest Hungary, 
should be honored with so much notice from this glorious land, that such as, since 
Hungary was a nation, no Hungarian, or perhaps any other stranger, was ever hon- 
ored with. [Cheers.] These and many similar things could never have entered into 
my early dreams. (Loud cheers.) The sphere of activity which was then open to 
me was narrow as my faculties, and modest as my condition. Ambition never 
troubled the peace of my mind. (Cheers.) I knew that it is not given to man to 
choose his position in the world, but I knew it is given to him honestly to fill the 
place which Providence has assigned to him. (Hear, hear.) So I rested contented 
with the idea that the Great Architect above knows best what use to make of the 
meanest nail, and endeavored to prepare myself to become a feeble instrument in the 
hands of Providence to do some little good work. (Hear, hear.) In this endeavor I 
had for my teacher that book of life — history. (Hear, hear.) It was the great exam- 
ples of the classical past that warmed the susceptible young heart to noble aims and 
instincts ; but the thirst of scrutiny pushed on the mind to look around for some other 
master than the ruins of vanished greatness, or those mournful monuments of the frail- 
ty of human things. (Hear.) I looked round not for ruins but for life, and to be able 
to teach my nation how to live. (Cheers.) It was then that my regards turned 
with admiration upon the Anglo-Saxon race, this living wonder of both hemispheres, 
the glorious Albion. (Loud cheers.) Hither my attention was drawn by the strik- 
ing resemblance and coincidence of institutions which the observer cannot fail to 
mark in the histories of our past ; hither my attention was drawn by the fact that the 
fatal sickness of European statesmanship, inherited from ambitious conquerors — the 
propensity to centralize every power, and to govern the people like imbeciles, even in 
their domestic concerns, is here. It has not yet extirpated the germ of municipal 
public life, without which — I repeat the word, which my bad pronunciation made not 
quite well understood on another occasion — I mean that without a municipal public 
life, I believe no practical freedom can exist ; and for the loss of it all ministerial re- 
sponsibilities, all parliamentary omnipotencies, are but a pitiful equivalent. But above 
all, hither was my attention forcibly drawn by the wonderful greatness of your coun- 
try. And I was searching the source of it, and I found it, not alone in your institu- 
tions — because these, as every human thing, can no where be entirely perfect ; but I 
found it, together with your institutions, in that public spirit which pervades every 
fiber of your nation. Sir, like the spirit of God, which on creation's day spread over 



70 KOSSUTH. 

the waves, I found it in the freedom you enjoy. Yes, Sir, I found England nt)t free 
because mighty, glorious, and great ; but I found her mighty, great, and glorious, be- 
cause free. (Loud cheering.) So was England to me the book of life, which led me 
out of the fluctuations of wavering thoughts to unshakable principles. (Hear, hear.) 
It was to me the fire which steeled my feeble strength with that iron perseverance 
which the adversities of fate can break, but never bend. (Cheers.) My heart and my 
soul will, as long as I live, bear on itself the seal of this book of life. (Hear, hear.) 
And so has England long ago become the honored object of my admiration and re- 
spect ; and so great was the image of Britannia which I cherished in my bosom, that, 
lately, when the strange play of fate led me to your shores, I could scarcely overcome 
some awe in approaching them, because I remembered that the harmony of great ob- 
jects wants the perspective of distance, and my breast panted at the idea that the halo 
of glory with which England was surrounded in my thoughts would perhaps not 
stand to the touch of reality, the more because I am well aware all that is human, and 
ever}' age, has its own fragilities. I know that every society, which is not a new 
one, has, besides its own fragilities, to bear also the burdens of the sins of the past, 
and I know it to be almost a fantastical law in mankind's history, that the past throws 
over so large a shadow in the present and the future, that to dispel it the sun mounted 
very high. But so much I must state with fervent joy — that on the whole the image 
which reality in England presents bears at every step such a seal of greatness teem- 
ing with rich life, and so solid in foundation, that it far surpasses even such expectations 
as were mine. And the thing which in the midst of your great nation strikes most 
the mind of the observer is, that he meets in moral, material and social respects, such 
elements of a continual progress toward perfection, and these elements display such a 
mighty, free, and cheerful activity, and this activity is so livelily pervaded by the pub- 
lic spirit of the people, that however gigantic those triumphs of civilization may be 
which England has already proudly to show to the astonished world, and great they 
are — the things called wonders by history shrink to pigmies before them. (Cheers.) 
Nevertheless, one feels by instinct all this to be but a degree — a gigantic one, to be sure, 
but still only a degree to what posterity will have the lot to admire here. But, hav- 
ing the honor to dine in Birmingham, surrounded by you here in the Town Hall, 
which, like your free schools, your Market Hall, and several of your hospitals, all 
raised without any external assistance, are so many proofs of the lofty public spirit, 
self-confident force, and perseverance of Birmingham, — you will allow me, gentlemen, 
to state, that in no place of England have I met the elements of your country's great- 
ness on more solid basis displaying their activity ; in no place I more confidently 
hoped to see that sympathy which I meet, to have a practical result, than here in Bir- 
mingham. (Loud cries of Hear, hear.) I have not the pretension to tell your own 
history to you. It is one of your particular glories to call men like William Hutton 
your own, and I like to prove what I say, so you will allow me briefly to state the 
motives which make me look to your city with that trust and that hope. (Hear, 
hear.) Industry is a chief element of greatness, welfare, power and might. It is* in- 
dustry which gives practical value to science. In other branches of employment, hu- 
man faculty appears to be a developing power, but industry is a creating power ; and, 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 71 

being so, it is the most efficient locomotive of progress. (Hear, hear.) But industry, 
highly beneficial in itself, becomes a pedestal to the public order of a country, and a 
lasting source of public and private welfare, when it is not only largely diffused, but 
also connected with an independent condition of the manufacturers, which inde- 
pendence, securing a substantial position to entire classes, cannot fail to impart to the 
manufacturing man that self-esteem, that noble pride, and that sentiment of proved 
dignity which is the mark of a free man, and the richest source of private and public 
virtues. It is so that we see in the historical period of the middle age, the cities to be 
the last stronghold of liberty, when all around them was feudal bondage. And what 
were the cities of old? Almost nothing else but corporations of manufacturers, inde- 
pendent in their situation, working at the fire of their own domestic hearth, working 
for themselves — men whom we might cTiaracterize as sm.a]l masters, not overwhelm- 
ing in wealth, but independent in their position. (Cheers) So becaine industry the 
last stronghold of political freedom, as it was precisely the means of personal inde- 
pendence. The development of science and wealth must have led, of course, to large, 
mighty industrious establishments where the secret powers of nature are made sub- 
servient to the creating poWer of industry; and those mighty establishments are even 
so beneficial to every country, where a large population works for employment. As 
they are glorious in the history of the development of man's faculties, but requiring 
large capital, and therefore more subjected to the fluctuation of commerce, being ex- 
posed to great losses, as well as to great gains, they have more of a personal charac- 
ter; whereas, industry largely diffused, and founded on a substantial, independent 
situation of those who work, has more a public and political character, and constitutes 
a lasting public element of the condition of the country. Now, this is precisely the happy 
condition and the glory of Birmingham. It is this basis upon which Birmingham rose 
from the time of Julius Cassar ; always a seat of industry, it became the center and 
the heart of a large manufacturing district, bringing the combination of the lime, iron, 
and coal of that district in suitable forms, become the common benefit of the world ; 
giving arms to those who bad the lot to fight for their liberation, the pen to fix the idea 
of thinking men, the cable to the wandering sailor, as also the fine neck chain to the 
fair beauties of the world. I saw with admiration the Crystal Palace, that magnifi- 
cent meeting hall to humanity. The meeting was in London, but I was lost in a 
wonderment at Birmingham's astonishing industrious energy. I saw and admired the 
crystal fountain, the most magnificent work in glass industry. I know Birmingham 
to be the metropolis of the great railway system. I know that it was Birmingham 
which preceded by its local exhibition the idea of the world's exhibition. (Cheers.) 
I know that it is Birmingham which gave, by the genius of its Elkington, the electro- 
type to us. (Hear.) I know that machine weaving was here used before the power- 
loom was introduced elsewhere. I know that here was the workshop of Watt, 
whose steam engines blotted the word "distance" out of the dictionary. (Cheers.) 
But what I the most admire is, that you have even made the steam — this omnivorous 
power of our times — subservient to the peculiar domestic and independent character 
of your largely diffused industry, so as to be almost an article of domestic use. 
[Cheers.] The character of your industry makes me consider Birmingham as a real 



72 KOSSUTH. 

seat of that strongly felt spirit of independence and freedom which makes your glory 
and my hope. [Hear.] Myself, the wandering son of a bleeding nation, feels, after 
two hard years, for the first time, my heart iiushed with joy, because, on seeing the 
English people, and on inhaling their public spirit to my vexed soul, I can't forbear 
to believe that the freedom of such a nation must be the pulsation of mankind's ap- 
proaching liberty, and that the part of the world where such a pyramid of civilization 
stands, cannot be doomed to be the prey of Russian or Austrian despots. [Great cheer- 
ing.] You remember Paulus Amitius, whose triumph by a whim of fate was placed 
between the tombs of his two sons. You remember his quiet Roman words — ^Cladem 
domus med vestra felicitas consolateurJ Were there anything in the world fable to con- 
sole a Magyar about the misfortune of his fatherland, here is the place where I would 
repeat the words of yonder Roman son ! [Hear, hear.] But alas ! (and who would 
blame me for it ?) even here where I am, and so surrounded as I am, still I feel my- 
self a homeless exile — [hear, hear ;] and all that I see, and all that to my heart car- 
ries back my memory to my down-trodden land. [Hear, hear.] Sorrow takes 
deeper root in human breasts than joys ; one must be an exile, and the home of the 
poor exile must be suiFering as mine is, that the heart of man can feel the boundless 
intensity of the love of home. However strange it may appear to you, the roots of 
my life are not within myself, my individuality is absorbed in this thought, ' Freedom 
and Fatherland.' [Cheers.] What is the key of that boundless faith and trust my 
people bear to me, their plain unpretending brother — a faith and confidence seldom to 
be met in like manner in his way ? What is the key of it — that this faith, this con- 
fidence, stands still fast, neither troubled by the deluge of calumnies, nor broken by 
adversities ? It is that my people took, and take me still, for the incarnated personi- 
fication of their wishes, their sentiments, their afiections, and their hopes. [Loud 
cheers.] Is it not, then, quite natural that the woes of my people also should be em- 
bodied in myself? I have the concentrated woes of millions of Magyars in my 
breast. [Hear, hear.] And allow me, gentlemen, a sort of national self-esteem in 
that respect. The people — that mighty basis of the pyramid of mankind — the people 
is everywhere highly honorable, noble and good. Some few may be selected to be 
the honored of humanity ; they may, by the powerful soar of their genius, rise to the 
very height, whence, as Halley or your Newton said^ ' Man is forbidden nearer to ap- 
proach God.' But they are exceptions, and because so, they are not the manifestation 
of the eternal law. And you know the development to which mankind is called in 
going on according to steady eternal laws. [Hear, hear.] Those selected few stand 
on the top of humanity, so they are not the basis of it. The basis is the people ; they 
are steady and lasting. [Hear, hear.] My belief, therefore, is, that it is the instinct 
of the people which is the true revelation of mankind's divine origin. It is, therefore, 
I was saying, that the people is everywhere highly honorable, noble and good. But, 
though to me, as fo a Hungarian, that sort of sentiment may not be becoming, which 
befits a British man, who, whatever be his personal merits, puts — and with right — his 
greatest pride in the idea to be a citizen of Great Britain ; still, allow me to prostrate 
myself in spirit before the memory of my suiFering people ; allow me to bear witness 
before you, that the people of Maygars can take, with noble self-esteem, a place in 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM 73 

the great family of nations ; allow me, even in view of your greatness, to proclaim 
that I feel proud to be a Maygar. [Great cheering.] —While, during our holy strug- 
gle, we were secluded from the world, our enemies, wanting to cover their crimes by 
lies, told you the tale, that we are in Hungary but an insignificant party, and this 
party fanaticized by myself. "Well, I feel proud at my country's strength. [Hear, 
hear.] They stirred up by foul delusions, to the fury of civil war, our Croat, Wal- 
lach, Serb and Slovack brethren against us. It did not suifice. [Hear, hear.] The 
house of Austria poured all his forces upon us ; still it vrould not do. [Cheers.] We 
beat them down. [Cheers ] The proud dynasty was forced to stoop at the foot of 
the Czar. He thrust his legions upon us, and still we could have been a match for 
them. One thing there was that we — the plain children of straight uprightness, could 
not match — that is, the intrigues of Russian diplomacy, which knew how to introduce 
treason into our ranks. [Cries of ' Shame !'] —This caused us to fail, combined with 
Russian arms. But still we were styled to be only a party fanaticized by me. Well, 
' I thank them for the word.' You may judge by this what will then be, when not 
a mere party, but together all the Magyars, also all the Croats, Wallachs, Serbs and 
Slovacks, melted in one body, will range under the standard of freedom and right. 
[Hear, hear.] And be sure they will. [Cheers.] Humanity, with its childish faith, 
can be deluded for a moment, but the bandage soon falls from its eyes, and it will be 
cheated no more. And yet, though we are oppressed, they are oppressed and de- 
ceived. [Hear, hear.] Afterward, the scorned party turned out to be a nation, and 
a valiant one. But still they said, it is I who inspired it. Perhaps there might be 
some glory in inspiring such a nation, and to such a degree. [Cheers.] But I cannot 
accept the praise. No ; it is not I who inspired the Hungarian people — it was the 
Hungarian people who inspired me. [Loud applause.] Whatever I thought, and 
still think — whatever I felt, and still feel — is but a feeble pulsation of that heart 
which in the breast of my people beats. (Hear, hear.) The glory of battles is 
ascribed to the leaders in history — ^theirs are the laurels of immortality. And yet on 
meeting the danger, they knew that, alive or dead, their name will upon the lips of 
the people forever live. How different, how much purer, is the light spread on the 
image of thousands of people's sons, who, knowing that where they fall, they will 
lie unknown, their names unhonored and unsung, but who, nevertheless, animated by 
the love of freedom and fatherland, went on calmly, singing national anthems, against 
the batteries, whose cross-fire vomited death and destruction on them, and took them 
without firing a shot — (hear, hear) — they who fell, falling with the shout, ' Hurrah 
for Hungary !' (Great cheering.) And so they died by thousands, the unnamed 
demigods. (More cheering.) Such is the people of Hungary. (Hear.) Still, they 
say it is I who have inspired them. No ; a thousand times, no ! It is they who have 
inspired me. (Enthusiastic cheering.) The moment of death, gentlemen, is a dreary 
one. Even the features of Cato partook of the impression of this dreariness. A 
shadow passed over the brow of Socrates on drinking the hemlock cup. With us, 
those who beheld the nameless victims of the love of country, lying on the death 
field beneath Buda's walls, met but the impression of a smile on the frozen lips of the 
dead and the dying, answered those who would console but by the words, ' Never 



74 KOSSUTH. 

mind ; Buda is ours. Hurrah for the fatherland !' So they spoke and died. He who 
witnessed such scenes, not as exception, but as a constant rule, at thousands of the peo- 
ple's nameless sons ; he who saw the adolescent weep when told he was yet too young 
to die for his land ; he who saw the sacrifices of spontaneity ; he who heard what a fury 
spread over the people on hearing of the catastrophe ; he who marked his behavior 
toward the victors, after all was lost ; he who knows what sort of curse is mixed in 
the prayers of the Magyar, and knows what sort of sentiment is burning alike in the 
breast of the old and of the child, of the strong man, and of the tender wife, and ever 
will be burning on, till the hour of national resurrection strikes ; he who is aware of 
all this, will surely bow before this people with respect, and will acknowledge with 
me, that such a people wants not to be inspired, but that it is an everlasting source of 
inspiration itself. (Great cheers.) This is the people of Hungary. (Cheers.) And 
for me, my only glory is, that this people found in myself the personification of their 
own sentiments. (Hear.) This is all he can tell of himself, whom you are honoring 
with so many tokens of your sympathy. Let me, therefore, hold the consoling faith 
that in honoring me by your sympathy, you were willing to give your sympathy to 
the people of the Magyars. But let me ask, what can be the meaning of this sym- 
pathy of the English people? Is it but a funeral feast, offered to the memory of a 
noble dead ? God forbid ! The people of England are the people of life — their sym- 
pathy belongs to the life. The hurrah which greeted me on your shores — the warm, 
sincere cheering of the hundred thousands in your streets, so generous and still so 
modest, so loud and so sincere, so free and still so orderly — I take for the trumpet- 
sound of the trumpet of freedom, justice, and popular rights. To be sure, deep is the 
sorrow which weighs on me ; it is, as I said, the concentrated woe of millions ; but do 
not think, I pray, this sorrow to be that of despondency, which knows nothing better 
than hopeless to complain. No, this sorrow is such a one as enlarges the horizon of 
hope and of perseverance, getting, like the Antaeus of the fable, new strength from 
every fall. Let me, therefore, assure you, gentlemen, that the people of Hungary has 
a future yet ; let me confidently state that the people of England has not spent its 
sympathy to a corpse. (Hear, hear.) But, well may you ask, ' What are the motives 
of this hope V The first basis of my hope is the Almighty himself. (Hear.) The 
God of Justice, who cannot grant a lasting victory to wickedness. History has to be 
sure recorded the downfall of mighty empires, of nations, to whom compared we 
Magyars can scarcely claim a.name. But the fall of those nations was precisely the 
revelation of the eternal justice of God. They fell by their own crimes. Nations 
die, but by suicide. (Hear, hear.) That is not our case. Hungary is not the sacri- 
fice of its own crimes. An ambitious woman had in the palace of Vienna the sacri- 
legious dream to raise the seat of power of a child upon the ruins of Liberty. Well 
she knew that God would not be with her, but she well knew that the Czar would 
be with her; and what do they care for God, if only the Czar be with them? The 
Czar, who dared to boast that he has the calling to put his foot upon mankind's neck. 
Arrogant mortal ! thou dust before God ! No, gentlemen, by such a reason a nation 
may suffer, but not die. The God of humanity cannot admit this. And do you not 
already his judgment mark I They said, down with Hungary that Hapsburgs may 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 75 

rule as they please. And look ! they had already in the first act of their sacrilegious 
plot to mendicate the help of him whose aid gave them a dishonorable bondage instead 
of the coveted might. They longed to be the sun, and have nations for moons to turn 
around them in obedience ; and they themselves became the obedient moon of a frail 
mortal. Let them but rely on their Czar : his hour also will come. The millions of Rus- 
sia cannot be doomed to be nothing else than blind instruments of a single mortal's de- 
spotic whims. Humanity has a nobler destiny than to be the footstool to the ambition 
of some families. The destiny of mankind is freedom, Sir, and the sun of freedom will 
rise over Russia also ; and in the chorus in which energies liberated nations will raise 
the song of thanksgiving to God, not even the Russians will fail. So let the house of 
Austria trust to his Czar. The people of Hungary and myself, we trust to God. The 
second anchor of my hope is my untowering faith in the destiny of humanity. The 
realization of this destiny can have no other basis than the people itself. However 
arrogant may therefore be those potentates of the continent, who unlike to the gracious 
Queen of these isles, take themselves for the aim and the people but for a mere tool, 
-I have the firm conviction that every state's organization is perverted, perverse, and 
doomed to be turned up, where single individuals or single classes have the pretension 
to constitute the basis of the society. Yonder wicked, pioud, which dreams itself to 
be the aim, is blasphemy. Mankind has but one single aim, and that is mankind itself. 
And this aim has but a single instrument, mankind again. They are rebels against 
God, who believe their calling to be — to form the Atlas, and to bear upon their shoul- 
ders the vault of humanity. One single pressure of the vault and they are crushed to 
dust. They are rebels against God who believe the great pyramid of mankind to exist 
but for the purpose that they may proudly stand on its top, having the pretension to 
doom the pyramid to immobility, only to serve as a pedestal to them to look down 
haughtily from the height. One shivering only, and they are shaken off, and hurled 
down to the dust. There let them lie. Truly, on throwing one unpreoccupied re- 
gard on the greatest part of our continent, sir, on looking to Germany, to Austria, to 
Hungary — on looking to the dignities of Rome, or to that of Naples, the horrors of 
which Mr. Gladstone has lately, with generous indignation shown, on looking in gene- 
ral to that Italy which cannot forbear to become furious when with its glorious re- 
membrances it casts but one look into the mirror of its present horrible state — on cast- 
ing a glance even over the great French nation, which the fairest fruits of three great 
revolutions, the glory outside and the freedom within, (jjae by one beholds absorbed by 
centralizing omnipotence, upon seeing all this, it is not possible, sir, that the unpreoc- 
cupied observer, to whatever party he may belong, should not be convinced this situa- 
tion to be so unnatural, so much in contradiction with the laws of nature and the des- 
tinies of humanity, in such striking opposition to the most sacred interests of mil- 
lions, that it is entirely impossible to endure. And, besides, when we see the great 
and the petty tyrants, how they have paid their people for having been merciful to them, 
when the people might have been but just ; and when We see how they are incorrigi- 
ble, how they have nothing forgotten, nothing learnt ; when we see, on the other side, 
how nations have by common suffering, learnt that their fate is bound one for another, 
in perfect solidarity ; and out of this conviction what Christian brotherly love sprung 



76 KOSSUTH. 

up instead ! The unhappy rivalries of old foraied the sole strength of the oppressor. 
Sir, it is quite impossible not to feel that we are already on the eve of those days 
when the oppressed nations will hold the greatest court day ever seen, before the ver- 
dict of which all artificial buildings of mankind's oppression will fall to dust. The 
third anchor of my hope is the history of my nation. Our country has seen already 
many a storm, and still the Magyar lives, and still Buda stands. There was a time 
when one half of Hungary was under Turkish dominion, the other half under the iron 
rule of the Bastas or the Canatas, the model after which the Haynaus of the day — or 
I should rather say their masters — were formed. [Cheers.] The horrors of Arad 
are not the first bloody leaf in the house of Hapsburg's history ; and still the Magyar 
is alive. [Cheers.] The house of Hapsburg has during more than three dreary cen- 
turies exhausted against us open force as well as all sorts of craft. It has fomented 
our discords, poisoned our habits, undermined our national character, lopped our free- 
dom, robbed us of our rights. It has impoverished, weakened, oppressed us ; and my 
nation has not perished yet. [Much cheering.] The single genius which was to be 
found in the house of Hapsburg — Joseph (but he of old, and not the modem Francis 
Joseph) — bent his powerful mind to the design of Germanizing Hungary, and of melt- 
ing it into his empire ; and our country, and our nationality, already by the prepara- 
tive cunning of ungrateful Maria Theresa cast back to the huts of the poor, did but 
with renewed strength out of the ordeal arise. [Cheers.] And even we, three years 
ago, the feeble offsprings of mightier times, there we stood desiring nothing but peace, 
in order that the ant-like industry of the people may change into a paradise our coun- 
try, stopped in its progress by long sufferings. There we stood, not only not suspect- 
ing treachery and royal perjury, but even then not willing to believe it when it ought 
to have been believed ; and, because not believing, there we stood unprepared to meet 
the danger which gathered in a frightful manner over us, and so we were attacked — 
and you know, gentlemen, how we were attacked, and we secluded from the whole 
world — alas ! forsaken by the whole world — without friends, without an army. Four 
scanty ranks filled with treacherous elements, who delivered our fortresses, without 
money, without arms, without ammunitions — still we beat back the unjust assailant, 
yea, beat him down, that he flew to the foot of the Czar, mendicating his assistance 
to his impious design ; which he obtained, it is true, but had to pay for it all his hopes, 
all his future honor, independence and dignity. Who could think this Hungarian na- 
tion not to have yet a future. Sir ? Even the means by which it was oppressed did 
this future but assure. While the house of Austria, by the manner of its victory, and 
the manner of making use of that victory in Hungary, in Vienna, in Prague, in Italy, 
has doomed itself to certain fall — while the house of Austria, precisely by its victory, 
revealed his power to have no natural basis at all — meanwhile has my nation, pre- 
cisely by its fall, to Europe revealed that she is necessary to Europe's security, as also 
by her glorious defense, she revealed her vitality. While the house of Austria, on the 
faith of its own crimes, is still sliding down, so as slide must he who came upon the 
bridge painted by Milton's master hand, my nation stands fast amidst all adversities, 
unshaken in courage, steady in resolution, firm in confidence. While the house of 
Austria, sliding along yonder fatal bridge, estranged from itself every people, hunted 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 77 

every race, every interest, and revolted against itself every sentiment from Schleswig- 
Holstein to Rome, from Hessen to Constantinople. Meanvi^hile my nation has pre- 
cisely, in her mischief, made brethren millions of them vv^ho, stirred up by foul delu- 
sion, fought virith the fury of extermination against us ; now they all have learnt that 
their own freedom also is dwelling with us, that our oppression is but the tool of their 
own servitude ; and they all look as fervently for the day of retribution as we our- 
selves. Could anybody earnestly think that these Magyars and all his fellow-people, 
all hunted to their very heart, the man, the Bohemian, the Pole, the Croat, the Slavon, 
the Dalmatian, the Wallach, the Serb ; yea, even the Lombard, and the Venetian also 
— the Lombard yonder scorching embers, which Austria even now but with an iron 
glove dares to touch, and where Radetzky, during three short years, has immolated 
3,742 human lives on the scaffold ; and yonder Venetian, who cannot forbear to weep 
tears of blood, when he chances to look along from the Rialto — could any body think 
that all these offended bleeding nations can lightly be melted together by the alche- 
mists of Vienna in the crucible of united slavery 1 With us, Hungarians, there have 
been alchemists of other stamp to make the same trial, Sir, men like Joseph the 
Second. But all in vain. Though Joseph has had what, to give in, makes amends to 
the people of Hungary — abolition of slavery, and liberty to conscience and to thought 
— still the trial failed. But Francis Joseph, what has he, the blood-stained child, to 
give to the down-trodden nations ? Oppression at home, shame and curses abroad ; 
one-and-a-half milliards of debts ; an approaching bankruptcy ; the monopoly of to- 
bacco -, heavy stamp duties ; consumption taxes (the very name tells the nature of it) ; 
and all his other glorious inventions to drain the life sweat of the people. These are 
his gifts. And when the blunt n||^murs of groans raised by these gifts, in spite of 
martial law, the hangman, and the state of siege, rise so high as to reach even the 
imperial palaces, do you know, gentlemen, what the consoling answer is ? I will tell 
you, with the very words of the most decided organ of Viennese politics : " It is told 
the Magyars are discontented. We know it well : but it was not our design to see 
them contented, but to see them pay." Horrible ! This word gives the key to the 
unavoidable future in your hands, gentlemen. The house of Austria will not be loved, 
but paid. Well, Hungary will pay off all it owes to them. It will pay them. I swear 
in the name of the honor of my native land. There are some nations, Sir, the situa- 
tion of which, though very painful upon the whole, promises still some duration to the 
power ; because at least some classes there are, the interests of whom are not hurt. 
In Hungary, Sir, except some hundred foreign functionaries, there is not a single man, 
still less a single class, whose interests were not mortally hurt. Wounded is the na- 
tion's heart, conscience, religion, honor, nationality, freedom, memory — wounded in all 
that it held for sacred and dear. Besides, wounded is the material interest of every 
class. The landlord and the agriculturist, the citizen and the soldier, the artist and the 
scholar, the workman, the merchant, the professionist — all cut down, to that poor 
Wallachian, who lived upon some plum-trees, which he now cuts down to free himself 
from the heavy duties laid upon. Elsewhere whole classes may be found who dread 
every change. In Hungary there is not a single class which the wise and honest Aus- 
trian government, by its paternal cares, had not driven to the point to be forced to de- 



78 KOSSUTH. 

sire the most complete change, however desirable it may be. And we have yet one 
thing not to forget. The people are merciful and generous. They can forgive those 
who govern many a fault, as long as the faith to the rulers is not plucked out from 
their heart. But where there is no more such faith, there is no power on earth again 
to knit a lasting tie between the rulers and the ruled. Now, that is the very case with 
Hungary. It experienced such a faithlessness, such an injury from the dynasty, that 
the faith to the morality of this dynasty is to the last root plucked out from his 
heart, so much. Sir, that the nation holds the realms of light, law and justice 
impossible under the Hapsburgs. How should it not? Every day, even now, 
brings new falsehood, new treachery ; every promise has turned out to be a lie ; 
the imperial word has become equivalent to perjury ; and, in addition, the people have 
been told that the Hapsburgs will have money and not love. As the Czar has brought 
the Hapsburgs to us, so Monk once brought the Stuarts back to you ; but the faith was 
lost to their morality, and where are they now ? Forsooth, I say, there is much like- 
ness in our histories. We are now there where you were after 1665. Only time went 
on. It will not last so long. Look to history. Restored dynasties havjs no future, 
Sir ; and in Hungary, after what it experienced, no monarchical combination has a fu- 
ture more. But the house of Austria can have no future even beyond Hungary, be- 
cause it has lost every natural basis of its existence, and that is a bad reason to claim 
further life. Had the house of Austria, in 1848, been just toward the nations it rules, 
or wise toward the great German national family, it might have had a future yet; but 
while it deceived every one of its own nations, to Germany it rendered itself. Where 
will once subside the fluctuations of great Germany's fate, it is not mine to foretell ; 
but sure as it is that they will somewhere subside,,even so sure it is that the wedge- 
stone of it can never more become yonder house of Austria, which threw itself away, 
to be a mere tool of Russian preponderance, which being a foreign one is also even so 
ambitious as despotical. The rule of the house of Austria in Germany would, there- 
fore, equally hurt as well the national feeling, as also the sentiment of liberty in Ger- 
many (as even the intrigues for supremacy already show) , without having even what- 
ever glory to offer in exchange. The historical basis of taxation it has lost ; the basis 
of the new era refused to accept ; how then should it continue to live f It had yet had 
one artificial fancy of his existence, the idea, to be necessary to Europe against Russian 
omnipotence, that Europe might not become Cossack, as Napoleon said. The idea, 
was idle and false ; because the guarantee of Europe could never be sought in one fa- 
mily, but in nations. The idea was a false one, but still it was. Where is it now ? 
Since by asking and accepting. Russian armed interference against Hungary, the house 
of Austria became a mere vanguard to Russian preponderance. Its existence not only 
cannot be necessary to Europe, but it turned out to be rather dangerous to it, since it is 
precisely Austria that has thrown up in Europe the conventional public law and so- 
called system of equilibrium. So the house of Austria, bare of all natural elements of 
life, has but three things to vegetate upon — loans, bayonets, and the Czar. Its eternal 
wars lead to bankruptcy — its armies are composed out of the sons of those nations 
which hate it as man is hating the hand which the blood of his mother had spilt ; and 
as to the Czar, Europe will not, cannot, admit him to rule at the banks of the Rhine, 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 79 

of the Danube, and of the Po. Let, therefore, the house of Austria, proudly relying on 
his bayonets and his Czar, trample upon oppressed nations. I know that armies of to- 
day are not the condottieriesof old— I know that the light has spread, and even bayon- 
ets think— I know that all the Czars of the world are but mean dust in the hand of God — 
and so I firmly hope, nay, I am certain, I shall yet see Hungary independent and free. 
You have to judge, gentlemen, by what I have had the honor to expose, if there be se- 
rious motives for that hope. But still one I have to add. The last, not least, of all. 
It is the sympathy, not only of every oppressed, but also of every free nation ; it is the 
sympathy of the mighty English race, called to be the pillar of oppressed humanity, 
the younger offspring of which glorious race, those in the mighty Republic of the New 
World, has put under the ban of mankind the oppressors of Hungary, and sent a war- 
ship to conduct me out of prison, while the elder brothers of that mighty race here in 
these glorious isles raised its powerful voice to break the chains which fettered my ac- 
tivity ; and, upon my arrival on its happy shores, honors me with an attention almost 
unparalleled in history, and this too in the very moment when the blood-stained Haps- 
burgs, ragingtolike an impotent furious child, let nail my name to the gallows. 1 feel 
not offended. Sir ! My honor is not dependent on Hapsburgian folly, Hapsburgian rage. 
There may be rather some glory in the idea to be hated and feared by bloody despots 
whom nations curse. I vow to do all where I can to merit this hatred, this fear. I 
have the honor to represent a principle. Sir ! The English race, in honoring me with 
its generous sympathy, has pronounced in favor of this principle. The Hapsburgs nail 
it to the gallows by a hangman's hand. It is a defy, it is a challenge of an arrogant 
tyrant to the public opinion of the world ; a defy to your sympathy, gentlemen ; a de- 
fy to the generous sympathy the fate of my country is honored with in this glorious 
land. I fear not to be contradicted when I say, that it were a want of appreciation al- 
most like an offense to the people of England, were I capable to think this sympathy 
to be nothing more than the passing emotion of noble hearts. No, Sir ! full well do I 
know that the sympathy of the people of England is no idle thing. Has the people of 
England once taken a direction, has it once bestowed its sympathy, has it bent its mind 
to anything, it will carry it, it will have out of it some practical result. This firmness 
of character, this untirable perseverance in every great and noble aim, is the true key 
of your country's greatness, gentlemen. So I rely upon it confidently. Sir. What it is 
I could dare to look to as for a practical result of the people of England's generous sym- 
pathy for ipy native land? That is a matter which myself, an unpretending stranger, 
could but slightly dare to touch. (Hear.) But would I not too much tire you, I 
would beg leave, Sir, briefly to state some few particulars out of the past, for the future's 
sake. Before all, I have to insist upon the point, that the manner of taking such a view 
of the Hungarian revolution — as if in making it, anybody ifl the world could have had 
his hand in it — is an entirely false one. Let the word — ^Hungarian revolution — be a 
praise or a reproach, it is a matter of fact that we have had no revolution. Sir. Take 
a man who, confident in the protection of law, rests quietly in his house ; and the night 
watch, instead of taking care that his tranquillity may not be disturbed, himself gives 
the incendiary torch to some fellow -lodgers of his house, and persuades them, by false- 
hood and promises, to bum his house and to murder him ; and he, starting from his 



80 KOSSUTH. 

quiet rest, rushes from his room to put out the fire and to preserve his life, and he cries 
out for the very night vi^atch to help him in his legitimate defense ; and this very night 
watch brings an armed guard with himself, and instead of defending the injured man, 
calls him a traitor and a conspirator for daring to oppose the honest incendiary, the 
faithful murderer— yea more, he joins the incendiary, and rushes on the injured man 
with his armed guards ; and he, the poor injured man, calls together his brethren and 
his sons, beats down the incendiary, the murderer, the night watch, and his guard. Is 
there any honest, any just man in the world who could charge the man with having com- 
mitted an assault on the legitimate authority of the night watch, Sir ? I have given 
you in this popular sketch the history of the past Hungarian war. I beg not to be 
misunderstood. Sir, it is not the fear of the revolutionary question which makes me 
say this. I am a man of justice, right, and liberty, Sir, and will be so my whole life- 
time. Little do I care for how the sworn enemies of justice, right and liberty, may 
call me, Sir. Your Hampdens, your Russells, and Sydneys, were also called revolution- 
ists in their turn; and, so may God bless me, I will never be longing for a brighter 
fame than theirs ; still less would I see this disavowal applied to the fu^re. Sir. To 
be sure, I take a revolution for a very great misfortune. Sir ; but also highly I own 
that an oppressed people, seeing every other means of preservation fail, has a right to 
make a revolution. The people of England must acknowledge this truth, because the 
freedom and greatness of England derives from the practical success of this truth. 
Highly I own that my oppressed people is in this very case. But I look. Sir, for a 
lively interest to verify a matter of fact, and to reduce the misrepresentation of tyrants 
and their satellites to their just value. All the like gossip about anarchy, about our 
having been most licentious demagogues who were forming incendiary plots against 
the tranquillity of neighboring States ; about my despotic Government carrying on 
Hungary with me by terrorism, and all other trivial phrases, in which soul-oppression 
of mankind excels, are entirely to be put on the same scale. Though the reign of the 
house of Austria over Hungary was three centuries, a long but a continual series of 
perjury, and.thoug-h it encroached immensely upon our rights, still we conserved some 
shadow of constitutional liberty. We enjoyed no freedom of the press, the mother as 
well as the chief guarantee of all progress ; but still our municipal institutions afforded 
us a certain degree of self-government, and our country meetings and their publicity 
conserved to us the power of words. We were persecuted for its use, till it became al- 
most " treason to love the country, and death to defend." But still we spoke ; the 
people, though excluded from any share in these constitutional rights, and reduced to 
the scanty roll of mere spectators, but seeing still there to be men struggling manfully 
for him, and the rights of humanity, even the people were generous patiently to endure 
and confidently to wait. And so the Hungarian soil was not the soil of conspiracy. Sir. 
My nation had, and has still, neither the will nor occasion to share in the movement 
of those new doctrines which disturb the sleep of the mighty of the earth. (Hear.) 
We have struggled fairly and openly, by the arms of truth and justice, for the social 
and political freedom of the people, as you have struggled for all those mighty reforms 
which helped to preserve your country from all dreadful concussions which never fail 
to arrive, where even progress and reform have no fair course ; we carried our reforms 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 81 

peacefully, availing ourselves of the opportunity which God has given, and which we 
made ; we knew to be just to the people, without regarding to what tongue he speaks, 
or in which church he prays, but the Hungarian people becoming master of his fate, 
was moderate enough to reserve his part to time, contented with gradual progress. 
With us there was nothing done by violent commotion, no equitable interests trodden 
down, and generously spared even those which, though insignificant their origin, were 
interlaced with the private fortune of a whole class. The people of Hungary was ra- 
ther inclined to undergo many sacrifices than to punish the sins of former ages in the 
present generation, or the crimes of some few by the sufferings of whole classes. 
There was with us no trace of anarchy. In the midst of our war, in every part of 
Hungary which our victories brought back under our rule, order and security of 
person and property was far greater than that of which the " undermining" 
Austria can boast even now. And this was not my merit, Sir, but the people's. 
Struggling on nine different sides, after the storm of battles passed from our 
region, and still it was for weeks not within the reach of my Government, but 
the moral sense of the people, and their noble instinct, safeguarded order and se- 
curity. Very seldom was I in the case to use the authority of command ; and when 
so, it was not the people but others who required it. To the people a word of advice, 
pointing out the necessity of the country, sufficed. The greatest force of our army 
was composed of volunteers ; the stock of my financial operations was made out of 
free offerings ; our cannons were cast out of bells, which were offered in an embarrass- 
ing quantity. We defended ourselves, but attacked nobody ; and secret designers 
were far from the straight spirit of my land. Austria and Russia took the neighbor- 
ing Turkish provinces for a basis of aggression against us. Whole armies of theirs 
have we thrown back of these frontiers ; we had but to follow — and we had a right 
to do so, because the duties of neutrality had not been maintained — and the theater of 
war would have been changed, yea brought home to Russia itself; and yet we stopped ; 
we respected the international rights, though towards ourselves nobody respected 
them. Austria concentrated all her disposable forces against us. Galicia was entirely 
denuded. Had I but a feeble force thrown in, the flame of revolution might have 
been blown up amidst that heroic, unhappy nation — the noble sacrifice of the morality 
of kings, as Johannes Miiller has stated, which looks so fervently, and with so much 
right, for the day of retribution — :and the flame of that revolution might have spread 
over Russia itself, but I took it for a crime to play with the blood of nations, and I 
refrained the sympathy of my heart and scrupulously avoided affording the slightest 
pretext to the ambitious views of the autocrat of the north. Vain to count on mo- 
rality in those quarters ! Sir, they knew full well that the heroic Polanders desired 
to flock in thousands of thousands to join us ; but I did not accept them. I told them 
that we had a thousand times more hands than arms. The Czar knew very well that 
the heroes of Poland, who fought so valiantly in our ranks, scarcely amounted to four 
thousand men ; but still he styled the Hungarian struggle a Polish conspiracy, and 
charged us with plotting against the security of his empire. Well, he was enraged at 
the idea that it was a Polish hero, now lying in the cold grave of far Aleppo, who 
' 'at down his bands in Transylvania. He wanted a pretense to set his impious foot 



82 KOSSUTH. 

on Europe's neck ; and not finding a pretense he took it, sir. So was that Hungary, 
gentlemen, which the despots of Austria and Russia, and their numerous satellites 
calumniated as the focus of disorder and anarchy. But, why was I dwelling upon 
these particulars, sir? The reason is, that I have to attribute to these calumnies and 
misrepresentations that during our past struggles we were not happy enough to meet 
that assistance in England which I readily confess I hoped to meet, and considering 
the interests as well as the position which your country so gloriously holds in the 
world, as also considering the known public spirit of the people of England, I claimed 
to be entitled to hope. Unhappily the people, as well as the Government of England, 
had not been well informed, at the period of our greatest need, about the true nature 
of the Hungarian war; about its high importance to Europe ; its importance to that 
Orient, which in so many respects enters into the dearest interests of Brilannia, so as 
to be nearly its Achilles's heel. We were hermetically secluded, and chiefly at the 
time when our struggle rose to European height. So either we were not in the case 
to afford the wanted explications, or the effect of those we could give was paralyzed 
by adopted rules of diplomatical formalities. And have the kindness to excuse my 
poor country daring to make one humble remark : The people of England — the 
public opinion in England was not very wont to be occupied with foreign affairs till now. 
Surely there might have been sufficient reason to do so. The people of England has 
grown up from within. But already it has fully grown. This great empire has no more 
to fear any danger from within ; not as if there would be nothing more to do, but be- 
cause by the freedom you enjoy by your institutions, and by your public spirit, you are 
positively insured ihat, whd'evcr you ma} have yet io do, not only will be done, but 
also will peaceably be done within. Your fate is not depending upon any mortal's 
whims. Here you are the only masters of your fate. But in respect to foreign rela- 
tions, things are somewhat different : every position in the world has its own condi- 
tions — every time has its own wants. According as things actually stand, I dare con- 
fidently affirm that, among all your interior questions, there is not a single one which 
could outweigh in importance the external. Nay, more ; I am persuaded that all 
your great interior questions themselves are independent of your Foreign Office. 
Danger can gather over England, not from within, but only from abroad. Do 
not doubt me, gentlemen, that Albion, in its insular position, and with the self-confi- 
dent knowledge of its immense power, does but laugh at the ambition of all con- 
querors of the earth. I know it, sir. Full well I know that Britannia, with the 
mighty trident in her powerful hands, is fully entitled, even more entitled than of 
yore, to proclaim with your great Shakspeare— 

" This England never did nor never shall 
Lie at the proud feet of a conqueror." 

I know this very well. But give me permission to ask — yonder glorious thing which 
we call the greatness of Britannia, is it but embodied within the material shores of 
these isles'? Freedom, civilization, your parliament, being the senate of whole parts 
of the earth — the principle of free trade — your due influence on the condition of Eu- 
rope — your India, and many other considerations, are they not so many life-arteries to 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. _j 83 

Britannia ? Let but one of these arteries be cut, and Britannia will not only no more 
be what she is, but these foreign questions will also powerfully re-act upon your in- 
terior. The catastrophe of freedom and civilization abroad cannot fail to bring con- 
cussions home to you. Yea, only these things can call forth such concussions within 
as might endanger your own tranquillity, your own welfare, your own hap- 
piness. To break Britannia it is not necessary to conquer these glorious isles. The 
very moment that Britannia should not weigh so much in the balance of the world as it 
must weigh, Britannia will be broken. The greater a body, the more vulnerable 
points it has. However you may trust to the present or any future government, or to 
the vigilance of your parliament, I know the most efficient axle-point of your history 
to be that principle — that your parliament and your government receive direction 
from the public opinion, instead of giving direction to it. And I am fully confident, 
gentlemen, that your gracious queen, as well as all constituted authorities, can but be 
glad to see the people pronounce in time their will, which might compass them in the 
storm of those grand evenements, the scent of which is already felt in the air. The 
finger of God is over Europe already stretched out. There are but two cases possible — 
the one is, that the crisis of approaching events will place the established governments 
one against another on Europe's Continent. In this case England cannot rest in- 
different. Should the fate of Europe happen to be decided without England's vote, 
England would be a European power no more. And should, in this crisis, reaction and 
despotism be the victors on the Continent, it were not necessary to see the Cossacks 
watering their horses in the Thames in order that England should no more be great, 
glorious and free. You are aware, I trust, that there is a solidarity in freedom now-a- 
days, because that struggle will not turn about particular points. The question will 
be, what principle shall rule over Europe — Liberty or Despotism ? I know that in 
that case the people of England will not side with despotism, but that it will side with 
liberty. But then the people of England, I humbly trust, will pronounce their will in 
time, that her silence might not be taken for irresolution or indifference. The second 
case is, that in the approaching crisis there will not stand states against states, nations 
against nations ; but that the nations will make up accounts with their own rulers, 
and settle their own domestic affairs. What is it humanity e.^rpects in that case from 
Britannia ? It expects that the people of England may not only respect (that is not 
of doubt\ but shall make respected the natural rights of nations ; and should the 
Czar — requested or not requested, that cannot alter the matter — should the Czar once 
more threaten oppressed humanity, should he once more be willing to violate the 
sovereign independence of nations— should he once more be willing to take any 
pretense to put his foot on whatever people in the world he chooses, and to droop 
Europe's liberty in blood— humanity expects from the people of England that it will 
shake its mighty trident, and shout out a powerful '" Stop !" like yonder Perfilius of 
old. Be sure, gentlemen, this single word— spoken with the resolution to be as good 
as your word — this single word will suffice. It will cost you neither money nor 
blood. Yea, by that single w'ord, by the will to speak so, made known in time, you 
will have saved the lives of myriads, averted bloodshed, and given liberty to the 
world. A glorious power ! A glorious calling !— nearly divine ! The short moral of 



84 KOSSUTH. 

my long speech, gentlemen — ^there it is. The Russian intervention in Hungary has 
put the foot of the Czar upon Europe. As long as Hungary shall not be restored to 
its sovereign liberty and independence, as long as Italy shall not become free, the foot 
of Russia will rest on Europe's neck — yea, it will step from the neck upon the head, 
and there will be in Europe neither peace nor tranquillity, but a continual boiling up 
volcano, and Europe a great barrack and a great blood-field. The cause of Hungary 
is the cause of civil and religious liberty. (Cheers.) I say of religious liberty, and, 
therefore, not religious exclusion or sectarianism — (hear, hear) — but free liberty to 
all — common liberty and protection to every religion alike. (Renewed cheers.) I, 
as you know, am a Protestant — (hear, hear), and not only a Protestant by birth and 
education, but a Protestant by conviction (cheers) ; but I here declare that I would 
struggle with equal enthusiasm to obtain religious liberty for Catholics as for Pro- 
testants, and for the protection of all men in the exercise of their religious convictions. 
(Cheers.) My opinion is, that the church should not meddle with politics, and that 
government should not meddle with religion. That is my creed. (Great cheering, 
waving of handkerchiefs, and cries of " Bravo.") I wish not to be misunderstood. 
It is possible that with my inadequate command of the English language, I may so 
express myself as to convey an impression different from that intended. Yesterday, 
and on previous occasions, I have said that the papal priestly government of Rome 
is the worst of human institutions, and I am led to fear that I may have given 
some offense to some well-meaning persons, who may have understood theSe 
words in a different sense from that in which they were intended. What I meant 
to say was, that the church should not meddle with politics, and that as a poli- 
tical government, a government for secular purposes, a priestly government 
was the worst government ever invented. (Hear, hear.) But I say, on the sub- 
ject of religion, I object to any one interfering with mine, and I wish not to interfere 
with that of any other man. [Hear, hear.] I differ in my view with many as to 
church property. To me the principle of property is sacred. When I was in power 
in Hungary there was no confiscation, no meddling with church property, but an auto- 
nomy of the whole church. I would have the church dispose of its own property 
by means of its own dignitaries and its own officers, but I would have them dispose 
of it so as to promote the efficiency of the church, and not leave the working curates 
on £30, which it is clear no man can live on, while bishops are receiving thousands. 
[Cheers.] Some have questioned the capabilities of Hungary to maintain herself as 
an independent nation. But she has all the elements of independence. She has 40,000 
German square miles. She has a population brave and industrious. [Hear, hear.] 
She has no debt of her own — and Hungary is not liable for the debts of Austria. True, 
we created a debt during our recent struggle, but the house of Austria burnt the greater 
part of it, so [thanks to them] we are free from that. [Cheers and loud laughter.] 
Then, Hungary is, in consequence of her municipal institutions, accustomed to cheap 
government. Municipal government is always cheap, while centralized governments 
are always dear. Again, she has great resources ; she is rich in mines, so much so that 
ehe could supply the whole world with the purest salt for ten thousand years. Then 
she has large national estates which might be distributed so as to increase the revenues 



SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM. 85 

materially. The principle of self-government is so strongly implanted in the Hun- 
garian that nothing will eradicate it. I would impress upon Englishmen that the free- 
dom of Hungary is intimately connected with the question of freedom in Europe and 
the principle of self-government, and I hope that Englishmen, while they will not in- 
terfere in the self-government of foreign nations, will determine not to allow other 
countries to interfere. [Cheers.] To this extent I wish to see the people of this 
country turn their attention to foreign affairs, and that they may exercise their influ- 
ence to spread the principles of freedom and self-government. Mind, that with every 
down- beaten nation one rampart of liberty falls. [Cheers.] The people of Birming- 
ham have ever been the champions of freedom. In Birmingham, the political union 
which carried the Reform Bill emanated ; and in olden time, when the principle of 
liberty was threatened by Charles I., Birmingham made a successful stand against 
Prince Rupert. I rely, then, on the sympathy — the active sympathy — of the men of 
Birmingham. [Cheers.] I rely upon it confidently. I rely upon it in the name of 
all who suffer oppression, and languish for freedom, like many people and myself. All 
they are my brethren, whatever tongue they speak, whatever country they may CEill 
their home. Members of the great family of mankind, the tie of blood is strengthen- 
ed between us by common sufferings. To be sure I have not the pretension to play 
the part of Anacharsis Klootz before the convention of France. You are not the conven- 
tion of France, and myself also, humble as I am, still I am no Anacharsis Klootz ; but my 
sufferinj^'S, sir, and the nameless woes of my native land, as well as the generous re- 
ception I enjoy, may perhaps entitle me to entreat you, gentlemen, to take the feeble 
words I raise to you out of the bottom of my own desolation, — take it for the cry of 
oppressed humanity, crying out to you by my stuttering tongue, People of England ! 
do not forget in thy happiness our sufl^erings ; mind in thy freedom those who are op- 
pressed ; mind in thy proud security the indignity we endure ; remember the fickleness 
of human fate — remember that those wounds which our nations bleed, they are so 
many wounds inflicted on that principle of liberty which makes thy glory and thy 
happiness ; mind that these aie a tie in mankind's destiny. Be thanked for the tear 
of compassion with which thou honorest our mournful past, but have something more 
than a tear — have a brother's hand to our pressure to give ! 
M. Kossuth resumed his seat amid loud and protracted applause. 



CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CHEVALIER HULSEMANN 
AND SECRETARY WEBSTER. 

Chevalier J. G. Hulsemann to the Secretaky of State: 

[Translation.] Austrian Legation, Washington, Sept. 30, 1850. 

The undersigned, Charge d' Affaires of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, has been 
instructed to make the following communication to the Secretary of State : 

As soon as the Imperial Government became aware of the fact that a United States 
agent had been dispatched to Vienna, with orders to vyatch for a favorable moment to 
recognize the Hungarian Republic, and to conclude a treaty of commerce with the 
same, the undersigned was directed to address some confidential but pressing representa- 
tions to the Cabinet of Washington against that proceeding which is so much at va- 
riance with those principles of international law, so scrupulously adhered to by Austria 
at all times, and under all circumstances, towards the United States. In fact, how is it 

{)ossible to reconcile such a mission with the principles of non-intervention, so formal- 
y announced by the United States, as the basis of American policy, and which had 
just been sanctioned with so much solemnity by the President in his Inaugural address 
of March 5, 1849 .' Was it in return for the friendship and confidence which Austria 
had never ceased to manifest towards them, that the United States became so impatient 
for the downfall of the Austrian monarchy, and even sought to accelerate that event 
by the utterance of their wishes to that effect ? Those who did not hesitate to assume 
the responsibility of sending Mr. Dudley Mann on such an errand, should, independent 
of considerations of propriety, have borne in mind that they were exposing their emis- 
sary to be treated as a spy. It is to be regretted that the American government was 
not better informed as to the actual resources of Austria, and her historical persever- 
ance in defending her just rights. A knowledge of those resources would have led to 
the conclusion that a contest for a few months duration could neither have exhausted 
the energies of that power, nor turned aside its purpose to put down the insurrection. 
Austria has struggled against the French revolution for twenty-five years ; the courage 
and perseverance which she exhibited in that memorable contest have been appreciat- 
ed by the whole world. 

To the urgent representations of the undersigned, Mr. Clayton answered that Mr. 
Mann's mission had no other object in view than to obtain reliable information as to 
the true state of affairs in Hungary, by personal observation ; this explanation can 
hardly be admitted, for it says very little as to the cause of the anxiety which was felt 
to ascertain the chances of the revolutionists. Unfortunately, the language in which 
Mr. Mann's instructions were drawn, gives us a very correct idea of their scope. This 
language was offensive to the Imperial cabinet, for it designates the Austrian govern- 
ment as an iron rule, and represents the rebel chief Kossuth as an illustrious man; 
while improper expressions are introduced in regard to Russia, the intimate and faith- 
ful ally of Austria. Notwithstanding these hostile demonstrations, the Imperial cabi- 
net has deemed it proper to preserve a conciliatory deportment, making ample allow- 
ance for the ignorance of the cabinet of Washington on the subject of Hungarian af- 
fairs, and its disposition to give credence to the mendacious rumors which are propa- 
gated by the American press. This extremely painful incident, therefore, might have 
been passed over, without any written evidence being left, on our part, in the archives 
of the United States, had not Gen. Taylor thought proper to revive the whole sub- 
ject by communicating to the Senate, in'his message of the 18th of last March, the in- 
structions with which Mr. Mann had been furnished on the occasion of his mission to 
Vienna. The publicity which has been given to that document has placed the Impe- 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 87 

rial government under the necessity of entering a formal protest, through its official 
representative, against the proieedings of the American government, lest that govern- 
ment should construe our silence into approbation, or toleration even, of the principles 
which appear to have guided its action and the means it has adopted. 

In view of all these circumstances, the undersigned has been instructed to declare 
that the Imperial government totally disapproves, and will always continue to disap- 
prove, of those proceedings so offensive to the laws of propriety ; and that it protests 
against all interference in the internal affairs of its government. Having thus fulfilled 
his duty, the undersigned considers it a fortunate circumstance that he has it in his 
power to assure the Secretary of State that the Imperial government is disposed to cul- 
tivate relations of friendship and good understanding with the United States, relations 
which may have been momentarily weakened, but which could not again be seriously 
disturbed without placing the cardinal interests of the two countries in jeopardy. 

The instructions for addressing this communication to Mr. Clayton reached Washing- 
ton at the time of General Taylor's death. In compliance with the requisitions of pro- 
priety, the undersigned d-'emed it his duty to dt?fer his task uutil the new administra- 
tion had been completely organized ; a delay which he now rejoices at, as it has given 
him the opportunity of ascertaining from the new President himself, on the occasion 
of the reception of the diplomatic corp?, that the fundamental policy of the United 
States so frequently proclaimed, would guide the relations of the American govern- 
ment with the other powers. Even if the government of the United States were to 
think it proper to take an indirect part in the political movements of Europe, Ameri- 
can policy would be exposed to acts of retaliation, and to certain inconveniences which 
could not fail to affect the commerce and the industry of the two hemispheres. All coun- 
tries are obliged, at some period or other, to struggle against internal difficulties; all 
forms of government are exposed to such disagreeable episodes ; the United States have 
had some experience in this very recently. Civil war is a possible occurrence every- 
where, and the encouragement which is given to the spirit of insurrection and of dis- 
order most frequently falls back upon those who seek to aid it in its developments, in 
spite of justice and wise policy. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the Secretary of State 
the assurance of his distinguished consideration. 

HULSEMANN. 

To the Hon. Daniel Webster, 

Secretary of State of the United States. 



The Secretary of State to Mr. Hulsemann. 



Department of State, ) 



Washington, December 21, 1850. 

The undersigned. Secretary of State of the United States, had the honor to receive, 
some time ago, the note of Mr. Hulsemann, Charge d' Affaires of his Majesty the Em- 
peror of Austria, of the 30th September. Causes, not arising from any want of per- 
sonal regard for Mr. Hulsemann, or of proper respect for his government, have delayed 
an answer until the present moment. Having submitted Mr. Hulsemann's letter to 
the President, the undersigned is now directed by him to return the following reply : 

The objects of Mr. Hulsemann's note are, first, to protest, by order of his govern- 
ment, against the steps taken by the late President of the United States to ascertain 
the progress and probable result of the revolutionary movements in Hungary; and sec- 
ondly, to complain of some expressions in the instructions of the late Secretary of 
State to Mr. A. Dudley Mann, a confidential agent of the United States, as communi- 
cated by President Taylor to the Senate, on the 28th of March last. 

The j)rincipal ground of protest is founded on the idea, or in the allegation, that the 
government of the United States, by the mission of Mr. Mann, and his instructions, 



88 LETTER FROM SECRETARY WEBSTER 

has interfered in the domestic affairs of Austria, in a manner unjust or disrespectful to- 
ward that power. The President's message was a communication made by him to the 
Senate, transmitting a correspondence between the Executive government and a confi- 
dential agent of its own. This would seem to be itself a domestic transaction, a mere 
instance of intercourse between the President and the Senate, in the manner which is 
usual and indispensable in communications between the different branches of the go- 
vernment. It was not addressed either to Austria or Hungary ; nor was it any public 
manifesto to which any foreign State was called on to reply. It was an account of its 
transactions communicated by the Executive government to the Senate, at the request 
of that body ; made public, indeed, but made public only because such is the common 
and usual course of proceeding ; and it may be regarded as somewhat strange, therefore, 
that the Austrian cabinet did not perceive that, by the instructions given to Mr. Hulse- 
mann, it was itself interfering with the domestic concerns of a foreign State, the very 
thing which is the ground of its complaint against the United States. 

This department has, on former occasions, informed the ministers of foreign powers 
that a communication from the President to either House of Congress is regarded as a 
domestic communication, of which, ordinarily, no foreign State has cognizance ; and, 
in more recent instances, the great inconvenience of making such communications sub- 
jects of diplomatic correspondence and discussion had been fully shown. If it had been 
the pleasure of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, during the struggles in Hungary, 
to have admonished the Provisional Government or the people of that country against 
involving themselves in disaster, by following the evil and dangerous example of the 
United States of America, in making efforts for the establishment of independent Go- 
vernments, such an admonition from that Sovereign to his Hungarian subjects would not 
have originated here a diplomatic correspondence. The President might, perhaps, on 
this ground, have declined to direct any particular reply to Mr. Hulsemann's note ; 
but, out of proper respect for the Austrian Government, it has been thought better to 
answer that note at length ; and the more especially as the occasion is not unfavorable 
for the expression of the general sentiments of the Government of the United States 
upon the topics which that note discusses. 

A leading subject in Mr. Hulsemann's note is that of the correspondence between 
Mr. Hulsemann and the predecessor of the undersigned, in which Mr. Clayton, by di- 
rection of the President, informed Mr. Hulsemann '' that Mr. Mann's mission had no 
other object in view than to obtain reliable information as to the true state of affairs in 
Hungary, by personal observation." Mr. Hulsemann remarks that " this explanation 
can hardly be admitted, for it says very little as to the cause of the anxiety which was 
felt to ascertain the chances of the revolutionists." As this, however, is the only pur- 
pose which can with any appearance of truth be attributed to the agency ; as nothing 
whatever is alleged by Mr. Hulsemann to have been either done or said by the agent 
inconsistent with such an object, the undersigned conceives that Mr. Clayton's expla- 
nation ought to be deemed not only admissible, but quite satisfactory. Mr. Hulsemann 
states, in the course of his note, that his instructions to address his present communica- 
tion to Mr. Clayton, reached Washington about the time of the lamented death of the 
late President, and that he delayed from a sense of propriety the execution of his task, 



TO CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 89 

until the new Administration should be fully organized : " a delay which he now re- 
joices at, as it has given him the opportunity of ascertaining from the new President 
himself, on the occasion of the reception of the diplomatic corps, that the fundamental 
policy of the United States, so frequently proclaimed, would guide the relations of the 
American Government with other Powers." Mr. Hulsemann also observes that it is 
in his power to assure the undersigned " that the Imperial Government is disposed to 
cultivate relations of friendship and good understanding with the United States." The 
President receives this assurance of the disposition of the Imperial Government with 
great satisfaction, and, in consideration of the friendly relations of the two Govern- 
ments thus mutually recognized, and of the peculiar nature of the incidents by which 
their good understanding is supposed by Mr. Hulsemann to have been, for a moment, 
disturbed or endangered, the President regrets that Mr. Hulsemann did not feel him- 
self at liberty wholly to forbear from the execution of instructions which were of 
course transmitted from Vienna without any foresight of the state of things under 
which they would reach Washington. If Mr. Hulsemann saw, in the address of the 
President to the diplomatic corps, satisfactory pledges of the sentiments and the policy 
of this Government, in regard to neutral rights and neutral duties, it might, perhaps, 
have been better not to bring on a discussion of past transactions. But the undersigned 
readily admits that this was a question iit only for the consideration and decision of 
Mr. Hulsemann himself; and although the President does not see that any good pur- 
pose can be answered by re-opening the inquiry into the propriety of the steps taken 
by President Taylor, to ascertain the probable issue of the late civil war in Hungary, 
justice to his memory requires the undersigned briefly to re-state the history of those 
steps, and to show their consistency with the neutral policy which has invariably 
guided the Government of the United States in its foreign relations, as well as with 
the established and well settled principles of national intercourse, and the doctrines of 
public law. 

The undersigned will first observe that the President is persuaded His Majesty the 
Emperor of Austria does not think that the Government of the United States ought to 
view, with unconcern, the extraordinary events which have occurred, not only in his 
dominions, but in many other parts of Europe, since February, 1848. The Government 
and people of the United States, like other intelligent Governments and communities, 
take a lively interest in the movements and the events of this remarkable age, in what- 
ever part of the world they may be exhibited. But the interest taken by the United 
States in those events, has not proceeded from any disposition to depart from that neu- 
trality toward foreign Powers, which is among the deepest principles and the most 
cherished traditions of the political history of the Union. It has been the necessary 
effect of the unexampled character of the events themselves, which could not fail to 
arrest the attention of the cotemporary world ; as they will doubtless fill a memorable 
page in history. But the undersigned goes further, and freely admits that in propor- 
tion as these extraordinary events appeared to have their origin in those great ideas of 
responsible and popular governments, on which the American constitutions themselves 
are wholly founded, they could not but command the warm sympathy of the people of 
this country. 



90 LETTER FROM SECRETARY WEBSTER 

Well known circumstances in their history, indeed their whole history, have made 
them the representatives of purely popular principles of Government. In this light 
they now stand before the world. They could not, if they would, conceal their char- 
acter, their condition, or their destiny. They could not, if they so desired, shut out 
from the view of mankind the causes which have placed them, in so short a national 
career, in the station which they now hold among the civilized States of the world. 
They could not, if they desired it, suppress either the thoughts or the hopes which 
arise in men's minds, in other countries, from contemplating their successful exampla 
of free government. 

That very intelligent and distinguished persortage, the Emperor Joseph the Second, 
was among the first to discern this necessary consequence of the American Revolution 
on the sentiments and opinions of the people of Europe. In a letter to his Minister in 
the Netherlands in 1787, he observes that " it is remarkable that France, by the assist- 
ance which she afforded to the Americans, gave birth to reflections on freedom." 
This fact, which the sagacity of that monarch perceived at so early a day, is now 
known and admitted by intelligent powers all over the world. True, indeed, it is. that 
the prevalence on the other continent of sentiments favorable to republican liberty, is 
the result of the re-action of America upon Europe ; and the source and center of this 
re-action has doubtless been, and now is, in these United States. The position thus 
belonging to the United States is a fact as inseparable from their history, their constitu- 
tional organization, and their character, as the opposite position of the powers com- 
posing the European alliance is from the history and constitutional organization of the 
governments of those powers. The sovereigns who form that alliance have not un- 
frequently felt it their right to interfere with the political movements of foreign States; 
and have, in their manifestoes and declarations, denounced the popular ideas of the age, 
in terms so comprehensive as of necessity to include the United States, and their forms 
of government. It is well known that one of the leading principles announced by the 
allied Sovereigns after the restoration of the Bourbons, is, that all popular or constitu- 
tional rights are holden no otherwise than as grants and indulgences from crowned 
heads. " Useful and necessary changes in legislation and administration," says the 
Laybach Circular of May, 1841, "ought only to emanate from the free will and intel- 
ligent conviction of those whom God has rendered responsible for power; all that de- 
viates from this line necessarily leads to disorder, commotions, and evils far more in- 
sufferable than those which they pretend to remedy." And his late Austrian Majesty, 
Francis I., is reported to have declared in an address to the Hungarian Diet, in 1820, 
that "the whole world had become foolish, and, leaving their ancient laws, was in 
search of imaginary constitutions." These declarations amount to nothing less thjui a 
denial of the lawfulness of the origin of the government of the United Slates, since it 
is certain that that government was established in consequence of a change which did 
not proceed from thrones, or the permission of crowned heads. But the government of 
the United States heard those denunciations of its fundamental principles without re- 
monstrance or the disturbance of its equanimity. This was thirty years ago. 

The power of this Republic, at the present moment, is spread over a region, one of 
the richest and most fertile on the globe, and of an extent in comparison with which 



TO CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 91 

the possessions of the house of Hapsburg are but as a patch on the earth's surface. Its 
population, already twenty-five millions, will exceed that of the Austrian empire within 
the period during which it may be hoped that M. Hulsemann may yet remain in the 
honorable discharge of his duties to his Government. Its navigation and commerce 
are hardly exceeded by the oldest and most commercial nations ; its maritime means 
and its maritime power may be seen by Austria herself, in all seas wliere she has 
ports, as well as it may be seen, also, in all other quarters of the globe. Life, liberty, 
property, and all personal rights are amply secured to all citizens, and protected by 
just and stable laws ; and credit, public and private, is as well established as in any 
Government of Continental Europe. And the country, in all its interests and concerns, 
partakes most largely in all the improvements and progress which distinguish the age. 
Certainly the United States may be pardoned, even by those who profess adherence to 
the principles of absolute Governments, if they entertain an ardent affection for those 
popular forms of political organization, which have so rapidly advanced their own 
prosperity and happiness, and enabled them in so short a period to bring their country 
and the hemisphere to which it belongs, to the notice and respectful regard, not to say 
the admiration, of the civilized world. Nevertheless, the United States have abstained, 
at all times, from acts of interference with the political changes of Europe. They 
cannot, however, fail to cherish always a lively interest in the fortunes of nations strug- 
gling for institutions like their own. But this sympathy, so far from being necessarily a 
hostile feeling tov/ard any of the parties to these great national struggles, is quite con- 
sistent with amicable relations with them all. The Hungarian people are three or four 
times as numerous as the inhabitants of these United States were when the American 
revolution broke out. They possess, in a distinct language, and in other respects, im- 
portant elements of a separate nationality, which the Anglo-Saxon race in this country 
did not possess ; and if the United States wish success to countries contending for pop- 
ular constitutions and national independence, it is only because they regard such con- 
stitutions and such national independence, not as imaginary, but as real blessings. 
They claim no right, however, to take part in the struggles of foreign Powers in order 
to promote these ends. It is only in defense of his own Government, and its principles 
and character, that the undersigned has nowf expressed himself on this subject. But 
when the United States behold the people of foreign countries, without any such inter- 
ference, spontaneously moving toward the adoption of institutions like their own, it 
surely cannot be expected of them to remain wholly indifferent spectators. 

In regard to the recent very important occurrences in the Austrian Empire, the un- 
dersigned freely admits the difficulty which exists in this country, and is alluded to by 
Mr. Hulsemann, of obtaining accurate information. But this difficulty is by no means 
to be ascribed to what Mr. Hulsemann calls — with little justice, as it seems to the un- 
dersigned — " the mendacious rumors propagated by the American press." For infor- 
mation on this subject, and others of the same kind, the American press is, of necessity, 
almost wholly dependent upon that of Europe ; and if " mendacious rumors" respecting 
Austrian and Hungarian affairs have been any where propagated, that propagation of 
falsehoods has been most prolific on the European ccntinent, and in countries imme- 
/liotoiv bordering on the Austrian Empire. But wherever these errors may have ori- 



92 LETTER FROM SECRETARY WEBSTER ' 

ginated, they certainly justified the late President in seeking true information through 
authentic channels. His attention was first particularly drawn to the state of things 
in Hungary, by the correspondence of Mr. Stiles, Charge d' Affaires of the United States 
at Vienna. In the autumn of 1848, an application was made to this gentleman, on he- 
jhalf of Mr. Kossuth, formerly Minister of Finance for the kingdom of Hungary by Im- 
perial appointment, but at the time the application was made. Chief of the Revolution- 
ary Government. The object of this application was to obtain the good offices of Mr. 
Stiles with the Imperial Government, with a view to the suspension of hostilities. 
This application became the subject of a conference between Prince Schwarzenburg, 
the Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Stiles. The Prince commended the 
considerateness and propriety with which Mr. Stiles had acted ; and so far from disap- 
proving his interference, advised him, in case he received a further communication 
from the Revolutionary Government in Hungary, to have an interview with Prince 
Windischgratz, who was charged by the Emperor with the proceedings determined on 
in relation to that kingdom. A week after these occurrences, Mr. Stiles received, 
through a secret channel, a communication signed by L. Kossuth, President of the 
Committee of Defense, and countersigned by Francis Pulsky, Secretary of State. On 
the receipt of this communication, Mr. Stiles had an interview with Prince Windisch- 
gratz, " who received him with the utmost kindness, and thanked him for his efforts 
toward reconciling the existing difficulties." Such were the incidents which first drew 
the attention of the Government of the United States particularly to the affairs of Hun- 
gary ; and the conduct of Mr. Stiles, though acting without instructions in a matter of 
much delicacy, having been viewed with satisfaction by the Imperial Government, was 
approved by that of the United States. 

In the course of the year 1848, and in the early part of 1849, a considerable number 
of Hungarians came to the United States. Among them were individuals representing 
themselves to be in the confidence of the Revolutionary Government, and by these 
persons the President was strongly urged to recognize the existence of that Govern- 
ment. In these applications, and in the manner in which they were viewed by the 
President, there was nothing unusual ; still less was there any thing unauthorized by 
the law of nations. It is the right of every independent State to enter into friendly re- 
lations with every other independent State. Of course questions of prudence naturally 
arise in reference to new States, brought by successful revolutions into the family of 
nations ; but it is not to be required of neutral Powers that they should await the re- 
cognition of the new Government by the parent State. No principle of public law has 
been more frequently acted upon within the last thirty years by the great Powers of 
the world than this. Within that period eight or ten new States have established in- 
dependent Governments within the limits of the colonial dominions of Spain, on this 
continent ; and in Europe the same thing has been done by Belgium and Greece. The 
existence of all these Governments was recognized by some of the leading Powers of 
Europe, as well as by the United States, before it was acknowledged by the States 
from which they had separated themselves. If, therefore, the United States had gone 
so far as formally to acknowledge the independence of Hungary, although, as the re- 
sult has proved, it would have been a precipitate step, and one from which no benefit 



TO CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 93 

would have resulted to either party, it would not, nevertheless, have been an act 
against the law of nations, provided they took no part in her contest with Austria. 
But the United States did no such thing. Not only did they not yield to Hungary any 
actual countenance or supcor ; not only did they not show their ships of war in the 
Adriatic with any menacing or hostile aspect, but they studiously abstained from every 
thing which had not been done in other cases in times past, and contented themselves 
with instituting an inquiry into the truth and reality of alleged political occurrences. 
Mr. Hulsemann incorrectly states, unintentionally certainly, the nature of the mission 
of this agent, when he says that " a United States agent had been dispatched to Vienna, 
with orders to watch for a favorable moment to recognize the Hungarian republic, and 
to conclude a treaty of commerce with the same." This, indeed, would have been a 
lawful object, but Mr. Mann's errand was, in the first instance, purely one of inquiry. 
He had no power to act, unless he had first come to the conviction that a firm and sta- 
ble Hungarian government existed. " The principal object the President has in view," 
according to his instructions, " is to obtain minute and reliable information in regard to 
Hungary in connection with the affairs of adjoining countries, the probable issue of the 
present revolutionary movements, and the chances we may have of forming commer- 
cial arrangements with that Power favorable to the United States." Again, in the 
same paper, it is said : " The object of the President is to obtain information in regard 
to Hungary and her resources and prospects, with a view to an early recognition of her 
independence, and the formation of commercial relations with her." It was only in 
the event that the new Government should appear, in the opinion of the agent, to be 
firm and stable, that the President proposed to recommend its recognition. 

Mr. Hulsemann, in qualifying these steps of President Taylor with the epithet of 
" hostile," seems to take for granted that the inquiry could, in the expectation of the 
President, have but one result, and that favorable to Hungary. If this were so, it 
would not change the case. But the American government sought for nothing but 
truth ; it desired to learn the facts through a reliable channel. It so happened in the 
chances and vicissitudes of human affairs, that the result was adverse to the Hungarian 
revolution. The American agent — as was stated in his instructions to be not unlikely 
— found the condition of Hungarian affairs less prosperous than it had been, or had been 
believed to be. He did not enter Hungary, nor hold any direct communication with her 
revolutionary leaders. He reported against the recognition of her independence, be- 
cause he found that she had been unable to set up a firm and stable government. He 
carefully forbore, as his instructions required, to give publicity to his mission, and the 
undersigned supposes that the Austrian Government first learned its existence from 
the communications of the President to the Senate. 

Mr. Hulsemann will observe from this statement that Mr. Mann's mission was 
wholly unobjectionable, and strictly within the rule of the law of nations, and the 
duty of the United States as a neutral power. He will accordingly feel how little 
foundation there is for his remark, " that those who did not hesitate to assume the re- 
sponsibility of sending Mr. Dudley Mann on such an errand should, independent of 
considerations of propriety, have borne in mind that they were exposing their emis- 
sary to be treated as a spy." A spy is a person sent by one belligerent to gain secret 



94 LETTER FROM SECRETARY WEBSTER 

information of the forces and defenses of the other, to be used for hostile purposes. 
According to practice, he may use deception, under thepenalty of being lawfully hang- 
ed if detected. To give this odious name and character to a confidential agent of a 
neutral power, bearing the commission of his country, and sent for a purpose fully 
warranted by the law of nations, is not only to abuse language, but also to confound 
all just ideas, and to announce the wildest and most extravagant notions, such as cer- 
tainly were not to have been expected in a grave diplomatic paper ; and the President 
directs the undersigned to say to Mr. Hulsemann that the American government would 
regard such an imputation upon it by the cabinet of Austria, as that it employs spies, 
and that in a quarrel none of its own, as distinctly offensive, if it did not presume, as it 
is willing to presume, that the word used in the original German was not of equivalent 
meaning with "spy," in the English language, or that in some other way the employ- 
ment of such an opprobrious term may be explained. Had the imperial government 
of Austria subjected Mr. Mann to the treatment of a spy, it would have placed itself 
without the pale of civilized nations ; and the cabinet of Vienna may be assured that, 
if it had carried, or attempted to carry, any such lawless purpose into effect, in 
the case of an authorized agent of this government, the spirit of the people of this 
country would have demanded immediate hostilities to be waged by the utmost exer- 
tion of the power of the republic, military and naval. 

Mr. Hulsemann proceeds to remark, that " this extremely painful incident, therefore, 
might have been passed over, without any written evidence being left on our part in 
the archives of the United States, had not General Taylor thought proper to revive, the 
whole subject, by communicating to the Senate, in his message of the 18th [28th] of 
last March, the instructions with which Mr. Mann had been furnished on the occasion 
of his mission to Vienna. The publicity which has been given to that document has 
placed the imperial government under the necessity of entering a formal protest, 
through its official representative, against the proceedings of the American government, 
lest that government should construe our silence into approbation, or toleration even, 
of the principles which appear to have guided its action and the means it has adopted." 
The undersigned re-asserts to Mr. Hulsemann, and to the cabinet of Vienna, and in the 
presence of the world, that the steps taken by President Taylor, now protested against 
by the Austrian government, were warranted by the law of nations and agreeable to 
the usages of civilized Stales. With respect to the communication of Mr. Mann's. in- 
:structions to the Senate, and the language in which they are couched, it has already 
been said, and Mr. Hulsemann must feel the justice of the remark, that these are 
domestic affairs, in reference to which the government of the United States cannot ad- 
mit the slightest responsibility to the government of his imperial majesty. No State, 
deserving the appellation of independent, can permit the language in which it may in- 
struct its own officers in the discharge at their duties to itself, to be called in question 
under any pretext by a foreign power. But, even if this were not so, Mr. Hulsemaim 
is in error in stating that the Austrian government is called an " Iron Rule"' in Mr. 
Mann's instructions. That phrase is not found in the paper ; and in respect to the 
honorary epithet bestowed in Mr. Mann's instructions on the late chief of the revolu- 
tionary government of Hungary, Mr. Hulsemann will bear in mind, that the govern- 



TO CHEVALIER HULSEMANN. 95 

ment of the United Slates cannot justly be expected, in a confidential connmunication 
to its own agent, to withhold from an individual an epithet of distinction of which a 
' great part of the world thinks him worthy, merely on the ground that his own govern- 
ment regards him as a rebel. At an early stage of the American revolution, while 
Washington was considered by the English government as a rebel chief, he was re- 
garded on the continent of Europe as an illustrious hero. 

But the undersigned will take the liberty of bringing the cabinet of Vienna into the 
presence of its own predecessors, and of citing for its consideration the conduct of the 
imperial government itself. In the year 1777, the war of the American revolution 
was raging all over these United States ; England was prosecuting that war with a 
most resolute determination, and by the exertion of all her military means to the fullest 
extent. Germany was at that time at peace with England ; and yet an agent of that 
Congress, which was looked upon by England in no other light than that of a body in 
open rebellion, was not only received with great respect by the ambassador of the em- 
press queen at Paris, and by the minister of the grand duke of Tuscany, who after- 
ward mounted the imperial throne, but resided in Vienna for a considerable time ; not, 
indeed, officially acknowledged, but treated with courtesy and respect, and the emperor 
Buffered himself to be persuaded by that agent to exert himself to prevent the German 
powers from furnishing troops to England to enable her to suppress the rebellion in 
America. Neither Mr. Hulsemann, nor the cabinet of Vienna, it is presumed, will un- 
dertake to say that anything said or done by this government in regard to the recent 
war between Austria and Hungary, is not borne out, and much more than borne out, 
by this example of the imperial court. It is believed that the emperor Joseph the 
Second habitually spoke in terms of respect and admiration of the character of Wash- 
ington, as he is known to have done of that of Franklin ; and he deemed it no infrac- 
tion of neutrality to inform himself of the progress of the revolutionary struggle in 
America, nor t > express his deep sense of the merits and the talents of those illustrious 
men who were then leading their country to independence and renown. The under- 
eigned may add, that in 17S1 the courts of Russia and Austria proposed a diplomatic 
congress of belligerent powers, to which the commissioners of the United States should 
be admitted. 

Mr. Hulsemann thinks that in Mr. Mann's instructions, improper expressions are in- 
troduced in regard to Russia; but the undersigned has no reason to suppose that Rus- 
sia herself is of that opinion. The only observation made in those instructions about 
Russia is, that she " has chosen to assume an attitude of interference, and her immense 
preparations for invading and reducing the Hungarians to the rule of Austria — from 
which they desire to be released — gave so serious a character to the contest, as to 
awaken the most painful soli'.-itude in the minds of Americans." The undersigned 
cannot but consider the Austrian cabinet as unnecessarily susceptible in looking upon 
language like this as a " hostile demonstration." If we remember that it was ad- 
dressed by the Government to its own agent, and has received publicity only through 
a communication from one Department of the American Government to another, the 
language quoted must be deemed moderate and inoffensive. The comity of nations 
would hardly forbid its being addressed to the two Imperial Powers themselves. It 



,96 LETTER FEOM SECRETARY WEBSTER, ETC. 

is scarcely necessaiy for the undersigned to say, that the relations of the United States 
with Russsia have always been of the most friendly kind, and have never been deemed 
by either party to require any compromise of their peculiar views upon subjects of do- ' 
mestic or foreign polity, or the true origin of Governments. At any rate, the fact that 
Austria, in her contest with Hungary, had an intimate and faithful ally in Russia, can- 
not alter the real nature of the question between Austria and Hungary, nor in anyway 
affect the neutral rights and duties of the Government of the United States, or the jus- 
tifiable sympathies of the American people. It is, indeed, easy to conceive that favor 
toward struggling Hungary would not be diminished, but increzised, when it was seen 
that the arm of Austria was strengthened and upheld by a Power whose assistance 
threatened to be, and which in the end proved to be, overwhelmingly destructive of 
all her hopes. 

Towards the conclusion of his note, Mr. Hulsemann remarks, that " if the Govern- 
ment of the United States were to think it proper to take an indirect part in the politi- 
cal movements of Europe, American policy would be exposed to acts of retaliation , 
and to certain inconveniencies which would not fail to affect the commerce and indus- 
try of the two hemispheres." As to this possible fortune, this hypothetical retaliation, 
the Government and people of the United States are quite willing to take their chances 
and abide their destiny. Taking neither a direct nor indirect part in the domestic or 
intestine movements of Europe, they have no fear of events of the nature alluded toby 
Mr. Hulsemann. It would be idle now to discuss with Mr. Hulsemann those acts of 
retaliation which he imagines may possibly take place at some indefinite time here- 
after. Those questions will be discussed when they arise, and Mr. Hulsemann and 
the cabinet at Vienna may rest assured that, in the mean time, while performing with 
strict and exact fidelity all their neutral duties, nothing will deter either the Govern- 
ment or the people of the United States from exercising, at their own discretion, the 
rights belonging to them as an independent nation, and of forming and expressing their 
own opinions, freely and at all times, upon the great political events which may trans- 
pire among the civilized nations of the earth. Their own institutions stand upon the 
broadest principles of civil liberty; and believing those principles and the fundamental 
laws in which they are embodied to be eminently favorable to the prosperity of States 
T— to be, in fact, the only principles of government which meet the demands of the 
present enlightened age — the President has perceived with great satisfaction that, in 
the Constitution recently introduced into the Austrian empire, many of these great 
principles are recognized and applied, and he cherishes a sincere wish that they may 
produce the same happy effects throughout his Austrian Majesty's extensive dominions, 
that they have done in the United States. 

The undersigned has the honor to repeat to Mr. Hulsemann the assurance of his high 
consideration. DANIEL WEBSTER. 



o^ 




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